Askey takes victory on Junior Tour of Ireland but Jowett in yellow

*Ben Askey takes victory at the end of stage 3 at the Eurocycles Eurobabies Junior Tour of Ireland today (Photo: Stephen McMahon - Junior Tour)*

British rider Ben Askey (Backstedt Bike Performance) has taken victory on stage 3 at the Junior Tour of Ireland in a sprint from a reduced bunch after 93.7km of racing from Ennis to Kilkee in Co Clare.

Askey, an 18-year-old who has been riding very well in Europe this team for Belgian team Flanderscolor-Galloo, got the verdict today over Americans Sean Strachen (Team Swift) Reilly Oberding (ONTO).

Adam Gilsenan (Team Ireland) was best of the home riders, taking 4th place in the dash to the finish line from just 30 riders after a hard day of racing, averaging 42km with three categorised climbs to be negotiated today.

British rider Lucas Jowett, a Backstedt Bike Performance team mate of stage winner Askey, went into today's stage with the yellow jersey after winning yesterday's Cliffs of Moher stage from a three-man breakaway.

Jowett finished safely in the front group today to retain the race lead and has a 20 seconds advantage of Andrew August, a 16-year-old riding for US team Hot Tubes and who was 11th in the US junior TT championships this year.

Mattie Dodd, another of the Backstedt Bike Performance team, is in 3rd place, meaning the squad has several cards to place as he is just 26 seconds off the yellow jersey with three days racing remaining.

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While today's stage came down to a sprint from a 30-rider group, there was plenty of aggression off the front, with an early three-man group going clear shortly after the start and surging ahead.

In that group were Alex Franks (Foremost), Alfie Salmon (Lee Valley) and Sam Moloney (Tarrant Skoda 1). By the time they reached the top of the first categorised climb - the cat 3 of Cooga after just 16km - the three leaders had an advantage of 1:55 on the peloton.

While the small breakaway held that gap steady for a long time, by the time they began the second climb of the day - a cat 3 in Knock village after 40km - that gap had come down to 1:10 and another five seconds had been shaved off by the top of that ascent.

By the halfway point of the stage, that established pattern of the breakaway gradually being closed down had continued and their advantage was down close to 50 seconds as the Bäckstead Bike Performance of yellow jersey Jowett led the chase.

And by the time the leaders dipped inside the 30km to go marker, their lead had been pegged back to just under 40 seconds. It looked like they would be caught whenever the strongest riders in that thinned down peloton decided to push harder, with Moloney then the first of the breakaway men to drop back.

And with just 17km remaining - following an impressive breakaway effort of over 60km - Franks and Salmon were also recaptured by the main bunch, or what was left of it. That gave way to a busy period of attacking off the front of the bunch, with Adam Gilsenan (Team Ireland) and Buck Jones (Bäckstead Bike Performance ) forcing a gap with 15km to go.

However, before the final climb of the day, at Kilkee Cliffs, they were caught and it was Irish TT champion Conal Scully who led the way over that cat 2 from Team Ireland team mate Liam O'Brien, thus taking the lead in the climbers' classification, before the finish came down to a sprint won by Askey.