Peter Hawkins best of Irish as yellow jersey rips it up on lumpy Rás road to Cahirciveen

The yellow jersey of Patrick Bevin drove it on the road to Cahirciveen on Rás stage 4 taking victory again today, with Irish man Peter Hawkins, above, the best of the Irish (Photo: www.blackumbrella.ie)

Having ridden the field off his wheel on Monday’s stage 2 of the An Post Rás into Lisdoonvarna to take the stage win and yellow jersey, the extent of the task for anyone with designs on taking on Patrick Bevin was underlined today when he was victorious again.

With 10 categorised climbs on the road from Charleville to Cahirciveen, the race split to pieces with a breakaway being overhauled by a much depleted 'peloton' in the closing kilometres of stage 4.

The race leader from the New Zealand national team showed he can sprint as well as climb by charging into the finish at the head of that front group which numbered an estimated 30 riders.

Second on the stage was last year’s race winner Marcin Bialoblocki (Britain Velosure Giordana), while Peter Williams (France Bretagne Velotec) took third.

While the early part of the stage was characterised by breaks clipping off the front of the bunch, there was constant regrouping and it was not until the riders had around 70km of the 183km stage completed that a decisive move went clear.

There were 12 men in it: Nathan Edmondson (Britain Velosure Giordana), Owain Doull (Ireland An Post Chain Reaction), Pierrick Naud (Canada National Team), Sean McKinnon (Canada National Team), Martin Weiss (Austria Tirol Cycling Team), Matteo Collodel (Italy Team Idea 2010 ASD), Alessandro Pettiti (Italy Team Idea 2010 ASD), Lars Horring (Netherlands Parkhotel Valkenburg),
Joshua Hunt (Britain Nfto Pro Cycling), Ronan McLaughlin (Donegal Inishowen Gateway Mccafe), Eugene T Moriarty (Dublin North Team 39 Spin 11) and Patrick Clarke (Mayo South Centra).

After around 30km clear the gap had reached just a handful of seconds below two minutes and the shape of the stage was clear; the yellow jersey bunch chasing the break with both groups expected to split under the pressure of the drag race to stage-end.

Just before the 20km to go marker, Moriarty lost his place up front. The 39-year-old Kerry man was one of the best riders in the country in his day but in recent years has taken a more relaxed approach to racing, though his class outed today in getting him into the move.

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Up the cat 1 climb of the Coomanaspic which topped out at 20km to go, Pettiti attacked and he went over the top first, followed by Lawless, with that pair then joining up and pushing for home as the breakaway disintegrated behind them.

But just as it did yesterday, the yellow jersey group was making relentless progress into the gap to the leader’s which was just over one minute as the race hurtled towards the 10km to go marker.

From that point to the finish, there was a general regrouping on the road around the yellow jersey, with the ‘bunch’ he was in mopping up some of those who had gone ahead including members of the original breakaway.

They hunted everything down until finally just the two leaders hung out there and even they succumbed in the last couple of kilometres; the sight of the yellow jersey on the front of the group doing the driving coming shorty before he sailed across the line the victor

Best county rider on the day was Eoin McCarthy of VisitNenagh.ie, while yesterday's breakaway man Damien Shaw takes the lead overall in that competition from his Aquablue team mate Sean Lacey.

Plenty more later.