The Rás stage 3 came down in a massive bunch sprint today, but not before some the Irish county riders had impressed on the long and fast road to Listowel, Co Kerry (All Photos by Bryan Keane - Inpho)
By Graham Gillespie
Dutchman Luuc Bugter tightened his grip on the points jersey today at the Rás as he took stage three in a mass sprint into Listowel.
County rider Sean O’Malley (Galway Gerry McVeigh) enjoyed a great day in the breakaway.
And another of the Irish amateurs, Richie Maes (Killarney) just missed out on a top ten, taking 11th on the day.
The race went right down to the wire; the Delta Cycling rider only barely edging out Germany Bike Aid’s Lucas Carstensen in a photo finish.
Just like yesterday, it was Lindsay DeVylder (Belgium) who got the last place on the podium.
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Yesterday’s stage winner Robert John McCarthy had to settle for fourth; the best placed of the Irish today.
It was a blisteringly fast day of racing with the 140.4km route being completed in just over three hours.
Matteo Cigala (Viner-Pactimo-Caremark) was the best of the county riders as he came home in eighth place.
However, Paidí O’Brien of DHL-Gerard keeps the county jersey for stage four.
The colours of the peloton in the countryside heading towards Crecora.
Canyon Eisberg's Max Stedman takes on liquid beside yellow jersey Cyrille Thiery of Switzerland.
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Meanwhile, Switzerland’s Cyrille Thiery will hold onto the leader’s jersey for one more day at least.
Thiery now only has a ten second lead over today’s stage winner Bugter, with Irish National Champion Damien Shaw (Holdsworth) just a second further back.
Lukas Ruegg (Switzerland) and Robbe Ghys (Belgium), who came fifth today, also keep the KOH and u-23 jerseys respectively.
How Rás stage 3 unfolded
Stage 3 was 140.4km long going from Tipperary to Listowel. The flat route meant that today was always expected be a day for the sprinters, and ultimately that was how the race turned out.
The stage was raced at a high speed in favourable conditions. The peloton flew through 47 kilometres in just the first hour of the race.
Throughout the main bulk of the race, there was a breakaway of six that led.
Jason Van Dalen (Delta Cycling) and Rory Townsend (Canyon Eisberg) first broke from the main bunch after about 30km.
They soon joined by four chasers: Martin Frazer (Britain St Piran), Samuel Tillet (Wales Racing Academy), Curtis White (Jellybaby) and county rider Sean O’Malley (Galway Gerry McVeigh).
These six riders stretched out their gap over the peloton to as big as 2:40 at one point.
That would have been enough to give Van Dalen the yellow jersey if the lead stuck.
Each of the riders eventually got subsumed back into the peloton. Although it wasn’t until within the last 5k of the race that Townsend and Van Dalen were finally caught.
This would have probably been later than many teams in the peloton would have liked.
The peloton then safely navigated the last few turns in Listowel town, before Bugter emerged victorious in a closely contested sprint by about a wheel.
Today’s stage had little real impact on the general classification. But Bugter will feel good about his chances of maintaining his lead in the point classification after today’s victory.
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