Power the master after super sprint

CIARAN POWER may have gone into this year’s FBD Milk Rás as the defending champion but he achieved his main goal for this year yesterday by landing a stage win in a ferocious sprint into Ballina to end an eventful 93-mile third stage from Clifden.

There was further excitement for Munster fans ­ many of whom had travelled from Cork as well as Listowel ­ when Eugene Moriarty snatched second place from sprint specialist Malcolm Elliott, a former points winner in the Tour of Spain and once a runner-up and big favourite with the fans in the Nissan Classic.

To watch a sprint like this is a privilege and to figure in it an honour in itself. The big group that had assembled at the front of the race after a day of mayhem in the bunch hunted down the long-time lone leader Mark Lovatt just over a kilometre from the finish and, once they entered the town, the struggle for positions began.

There was a sharp corner into the finishing straight and that is where the drama unfolded. Elliott, on the comeback trail, looked the favourite on the approach and Moriarty appeared to have the ideal position until the big Englishman came through.

Then Clareman Vincent Gleeson gave Ireland team-mate Power the perfect lead out and it was all over as regards the stage winner.

Tommy Evans was there, too, in the raceleader’s yellow jersey on the outside and, with Elliott and Paul Manning, who won the Rás two years ago, jostling inside, Moriarty showed nerves of steel to hold his position.

“It was pretty hairy all right,” Power admitted afterwards. “But it must have been exciting to watch. I wanted to win this stage.

“I have been second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth on stages and I really wanted that stage victory. I thought I had it today but it got pretty crowded at the front going into that final bend. I just told myself to go for it - if I crash so be it.”

Once Power saw the whitewash on the road he was not going to be denied and he made it look so easy ­ ice cool as he adjusted his jersey long before he crossed the line. You have to let your sponsor - the Irish Sports Council, in this instance - share in the glory.

“I had a good lead out and I built on that,” Power said as he praised his Ireland team mates for their contribution throughout the day.

“The British team obviously wanted to get Paul Manning up for the sprint and there were so many others there it got pretty crowded at the front. I was thrilled the way it went.

“Although I have won the overall twice I had never won a stage in the Rás until today. I was second four times last year so it was my big aim coming into the race and now I have done it I can relax and think of other things.”

Evans, too, was very happy the way things went as he retained the race leader’s yellow jersey which he won into Roscrea on Sunday ­ albeit by a slender margin of just four seconds.

“I asked Ciaran out the road if he was going to go for it and he said he was, so I told him I would help him to it,” he said. “It was another tough day for us out there. As a team we had to ride at the front of a chasing group for 60km. When we caught the leading group we were down to just 20. We had dropped all the others. I got shelled out and I had to make my own way back up. So it was pretty hard.”

When they merged with the leading group that had been established early in the day, Mark Lovatt from the Lancaster team had already made his getaway and appeared to be heading for a solo victory.

But his was the hard luck story of the day. A crash after the first mile left the main bunch in tatters and it never recovered. At one point riders were stretched back over an eight-mile stretch of the road.

There were early attacks again involving Corkmen Timmy Barry and Ritchie Cahill, riding for the Tipperary Dan Morrissey team and Moriarty, too, riding for the Meath Lee Strand team, was involved in everything.

“It was a bad day at the office on Monday and my chances of doing anything on overall classification were pretty well blown,” Lovatt admitted after the stage. “From here on stage glory will be the target.”

With just under 50 miles to go Lovatt launched his lone assault on the race and, pursued by four chasers, Steve Cummings (Great Britain), Jonas Ljungblad (Sweden), Timmy Barry and his Lancaster team-mate out to do him no harm, Kevin Dawson, over a minute behind.

Lovatt stretched his lead to 1:32 and they were absorbed by the big group now established at the front.

But the cross wind took its toll and his lead was down to 18 secs when he turned right for Ballina. With the wind behind him he increased his lead and held on until inside the last mile when he was nabbed.

Bitterly disappointed, Lovatt said he thought he would have made it.

“I was riding well within myself ­ dictating my own pace.

“I have ridden this race seven times and I was hell-bent on winning a stage. I thought I had it with 5k to go,” he admitted.

He ended up 23rd and bitterly disappointed.

The weather has been cruel to the riders all week and it will be a major factor again today when they embark on a marathon 107-mile stage that takes them across the Barnesmore Gap to Letterkenny with the Donegal Mountains looming high ahead of them on Thursday and Friday.