Nally's triumphant return to Cork

DERMOT NALLY, who has spent all of his racing career in Spain, made a dramatic return to his native Cork yesterday when he screamed into Charleville to win the third stage of the FBD Milk Rás.

The 24-year-old professional was born in Cork City and lived on College Road until his family moved to Valencia when he was six. Since then all of his visits to Ireland have featured the podium. He won the national junior road race championships in Carrick-on-Suir as a first year junior and won the under-23 championships in 2001.

But nothing matched yesterday's achievement when he sprinted clear of the leading group of riders that had dominated the race from the very start to claim victory on his own and savour every moment of it up the finishing straight.

Not alone was it his first stage win in the Rás but it was his first victory as a professional since joining the Paternina Costa De Almeria team two years ago.

Before that he enjoyed an exciting amateur career in the Irish jersey when, besides his championship wins, he represented his country at the world junior and under-23 championships and several big international races.

Yesterday, however, was his finest achievement to date as he left a powerful international field behind him to fulfil the first of two targets he had set himself before returning to Ireland to ride for the Galway team in the Rás.

"The first time I rode the race, I got gastroenteritis and had to abandon," he said. "This year I came hoping to win a stage and get a top 10 placing in overall classification."

There is no doubt that he merited yesterday's stage win for he made an important contribution to the leading group of riders at a time when it appeared as if the main bunch was about to swallow them up.

The riders had hardly settled in their saddles when Dubliner Paul Healion launched the first attack of the day. He was joined by six other riders, and then, David McCann of the Ireland team and Daniel Lynch from Cork whose twin brother, Denis, had been commanding his share of the limelight with the Irish team over the earlier part of the race.

McCann, despite positional problems with his new bike, joined the teak-tough Kazakhstan rider, Valeriy Dmitryev, at the front and, with everyone playing a part, they opened up a lead of more than two minutes.

But it was almost wiped out after 50 miles when the bunch came to within five seconds but they stalled and the group began to pull clear again.

That was when Dermot Nally jumped across and immediately injected new life into the proceedings.

They gradually increased the lead to over a minute and luckless Daniel Lynch punctured at the worst possible time with the pressure on and, despite help from the German, Michael Schweizer, could never get back up to the leaders.

The breakaway group withstood a series of attacks on the road to Charleville before Nally made his winning assault outside the town and held on to win on his own.

Behind him, Dmitryev was rewarded for his day-long effort when he won the sprint for second place from Malcolm Elliott, who had to settle for third place once again. David McCann was again involved in the sprint, along with Sean Lacey of the Kerry team who is having a sensational week and Denis Lynch.

In fact, Lacey also had team mates Ritchie Cahill and Vincent Gleeson involved in the break that had grown to 18 riders before the finish, with Paul Griffin, who started out in the green points jersey, losing out.

Malcolm Elliott, who won the green points jersey in the Tour of Spain, will be back in the green jersey today as leader of the points classification.

There is no change at the top of the general classification with Valter Bonca (Slovenia) still leading by just six seconds and, while the lead is slender, he is going to be difficult to topple.

Irish Team Manager Frank Campbell predicted that today's stage a marathon 116 miles to Caherciveen, with the first category one climb, Coonanaspic, looming 12 miles from the finish could cause the first big shuffle of the pack.

"The fact that we are all intact at the moment is important," he said. "So far they have been marking David O'Loughlin out of it but we have options from here on."