Darragh Zaidan takes Gorey stage 3 victory as fellow escapee Mark Reilly grabs yellow

Darragh Zaidan is clearly delighted with his well-deserved stage win in Gorey today. Mark Reilly to his left had to be content with 2nd place but also took the leader's yellow jersey (Photo: Sean Rowe)

Dubliner Darragh Zaidan has taken stage 3 of the Gorey Three Day in the Co Wexford Town this afternoon, after an all out attack with Lucan CRC’s Mark Reilly who took the yellow jersey for his troubles.

Adamstown rider Zaidan was tipped for a good ride this weekend, having spent the last two seasons in France and returned to race in his native Ireland this season.

He was very aggressive throughout today’s afternoon stage; a 96km circuit race of four laps passing through Gorey Town and featuring the Craanford climb each time.

After an early breakaway spent around one lap off the front, Zaidan attacked and was reeled in but made a number of further moves that eventually saw him pull clear with a junior rider from the Cork County CC team.

They spent the third lap out front in a two-man move, working very well until Zaidan distanced his companion after they turned into the headwind with around 15km remaining.

With the bunch never too far back, which included yellow jersey Robin Seymour (Expert Cycles) and this morning’s time trial stage winner Ciaran Kelly (Bikeworx), Zaidan pressed for home alone.

And just as he was beginning to fade, he was joined by Lucan’s Reilly around 7km from the finish.

With Zaidan spent at that stage and Reilly riding to try and take the overall lead, it was the Lucan man who did the lion’s share of the work.

The duo hung on and sprinted for the stage win, with Zaidan taking it from new leader Reilly, whose team mate John Priest won the bunch sprint for 3^rd.

The win was a welcome boost for Zaidan who has had a testing time over the past year.

He had a very bad crash 12 months ago which substantially sideline his entire year. And without results in his second year away he was unable to secure a place in a team of his liking and so decided to come home and compete on the domestic scene for now.

A junior international and stage winner in the Junior Tour in 2011 when riding on the national team, Zaidan is also a former junior individual pursuit and scratch race national champion.

The result leaves Zaidan leading the points classification and placed 8^th overall, just under one minute off Reilly who took the yellow jersey from Robin Seymour.

The MTB Olympian and legendary cyclocross rider was among an 11-man break clear on Saturday’s opening stage when a bad car crash some 3km from the finish of the race route forced the abandonment of the stage.

Those in the escape were credited with an advantage of 1:02 over everyone else in the field and when Seymour was quickest of the escapees in this morning’s short test, he took the yellow jersey.

That time trial was won by Ciaran Kelly (Bikeworx), who bested second-placed Seymour by 30 seconds.