Downing wins first stage of Tour of Ireland

Russell Downing of the CandiTV – Marshall’s Pasta team sprinted to victory in the opening stage of this year’s Tour of Ireland in Waterford today.

Downing, who was runner-up in last year’s Tour, showed his strong sprinting ability in staving off the late attempts of 16 other breakaway riders who managed to escape in the final 20km.

In that breakaway was Irish rider Philip Deignan (Cervelo test team) but the letterkenny man could only manage fourth place behind Alexander Kolobnev (Saxo Bank) and Matti Breschel, also Saxo Bank.

The early part of the race had been characterised by several futile breakaway efforts but approaching the 50 kilomtre mark, Jay Thomspon of the MTN Energade team surged clear on his own and amazingly rode a solo break for almost 100 kilometres.

Eventually he was caught before the category two climb at Inistioge and it was 18-year-old Philip Lavery of the Irish National Team who overtook him, claiming maximum points on the KOH and making it a day to remember for the young Dubliner.

The man everyone turned out to see, seven-time Tour-de-France winner Lance Armstrong didn’t disappoint either and though he was relatively inactive for the majority of the race, he managed to escape with the break that remained clear on the approach to the finish.

Building up a gap of more than a minute, it remains to be seen if it will be significant but along with Armstrong, there were several other strong contenders who have been tipped for the overall in the break.

Matt Wilson of the Team Type One team leads the mountains classification while Matti Breschel is best young rider.