Mark Dowling takes third Rás county rider prize in a row; Italian wins stage, Austrian overall

Mark Dowling of DID Dunboyne (leading) has taken his third county rider prize in a row at the An Post Rás on the final stage into Skerries this afternoon. Seen here flying up Seskin Hill in Carrick on Friday on the way to 6th on the day and the first of those county men accolades (Photo: Kay's Photography)

Mark Dowling of the DID Dunboyne team has underlined his class once again on the An Post Rás and shown he is emerging from the event in mint condition, taking the county rider prize for the third day in succession on the final stage into Skerries this afternoon.

He was part of the yellow jersey group that sprinted for second at the end of the trek from Newbridge, run off in mixed conditions as the riders faced both sunshine and rain.

The sprinters’ party was spoiled when Davide Ballerini (Italy Team Idea 2010 ASD) attacked the day’s seven man breakaway with 9km remaining and managed to hold off the field as all of those men he had spent much of the stage up the road with were caught.

In that move was sole Irish rider Chris Reilly (Louth South), though his efforts came to nothing as all out front but Ballerini were snuffed out by the charging bunch despite the break having well over three minutes at one point.

Davide Ballerini (Italy Team Idea 2010 ASD) takes a great solo stage win into Skerries, taking flight from the day's breakaway and holding off the yellow jersey bunch as his fellow escapees were all caught.

There was no change overall, with Clemens Fankhauser of Austria Tirol Cycling retaining his lead to scoop the biggest victory of his career.

He took the 2014 title by 25 seconds from Alex Peters (Britain Madison Genesis) and Nic Hamilton of the Canada National Team in third, some 45 seconds off yellow.

Best of the Irish overall was Sean Downey of the An Post-Chainreaction team who ended the race a very strong 6th, at 58 seconds, though knowing that just 13 seconds would have taken him to 3rd overall.

Mullingar’s Damien Shaw won the county rider classification overall and his team Aquablue took the county team prize.

Former yellow jersey Patrick Bevin of New Zealand won the points classification, Peters was best U23 rider and Markus Eibegger (Azerbaijan Synergy Baku) won the climbers classification, having sewn that up even before the start of today’s stage.

Overall leader and eventual winner, Austrian rider Clemens Fankhauser (left) chats with points leader Patrick Bevin of New Zealand on the start line in Newbridge today.

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The final stage of the race took the riders from Newbridge to Skerries over 134km with four categorised climbs and two loops of the finish circuit passing through the north Co Dublin stage end village.

The opening hour was run off at a very fast pace of 47 km per hour, with a number of groups going clear but none sticking.

Among those in the thick of the early action were Ronan McLaughlin (Donegal Inishowen Gateway McCafe), Connor McConvey (Azerbaijan Synergy Baku), Simon Ryan (Tipperary South) and Christopher Reilly (Louth South).

And when the seven-man decisive move went clear after around one hour of racing, Reilly was in there. While Ryan chased for a period on his own, he could not make it across the gap.

In that escape with Reilly were Robert Partridge (Britain Velosure Giordana),Alistair Slater (Great Britain National Team), David Chopin (France Bretagne Velotec), Davide Ballerini (Italy Team Idea 2010 ASD), Alessandro Pettiti (Italy Team Idea 2010 ASD) and Lars Horring (Netherlands Parkhotel Valkenburg).

They got organised immediately and their gap shot out to 2:45 within around 20 minutes of going clear. The leader of the county rider classification, Damien Shaw of Aquablue also made an effort to get across but with the gap at 3:20 after 100km of racing, his efforts were futile.

As the leaders crossed the finish line in Skerries for the first time, the gap was down to 2:35 and continued to fall, down to two minutes shortly afterwards.

Riders from the Austria Tirol Cycling, the team of overall leader Clemens Fankhauser was leading the chase back in the peloton and they were assisted by Azerbaijan Synergy Baku and New Zealand.

Baku’s Irish rider, Connor McConvey was very active on the front and was clearly trying to close the gap and set up one of his sprinters for a third stage win for the squad.

As the breakaway passed through the finish line for the second time with just 13km remaining, the gap was down to 1:35 and continued to fall.

However, while the bunch pegged them back to one minute with 10km remaining, Ballerini attacked the breakaway hard and moved clear, getting a gap of 20 seconds almost immediately.

That attack proved to be a wise one, with the Italian holding off the charging peloton to take a great solo victory as all of the other breakaway men were mopped up.

It was Daniel Klemme of the Synergy Baku team who took the sprint for second place from Pierrick Naud (Canada National Team) and stage 5 winner Marcin Bialoblocki (Britain Velosure Giordana).

There were no Irish in the top 10, though Mark Dowling (DID Dunboyne) took the county prize, his third of the week.