NEWTON
OUT AS GERMAN TELEKOM TEAM SNATCH VICTORY NEWTON
OUT AS GERMAN TELEKOM TEAM SNATCH VICTORY
by Gerard Cromwell
Today's second stage of the FBD MILK Ras took the 188 riders from Ballaghadreen to Portumna, a distance of 81 miles. Sunshine, little wind and the added bonus of having no mountains to contend with augered well for the sprinters. As soon as the field left Ballaghadreen, an 8 man breakaway went up the road. This group included last year's winer , Julian Winn (Wales) and had Ireland Shannon Oaks Hotel rider, Mark Scanlon tagging along as policemanfor his yellow clad teammate David McCann.
This group got a maximum lead of 1'00" but were reeled in at the ten mile mark by a restless peleton. This had set the tone for the day as numerous attacks were chase down and counter-attacked throughout the stage. At Carrowbaun (58 miles) Ireland rider Morgan Fox found himself race leader on the road as he policed a five man breakaway containing Stephen Cummings (Great Britain), Kryzystoff Zasada (Legia Basylzsic), David Chassot (Fisconseils) and and German Telekom rider Christain Knees.
With 25
kilometres remaining, this group swelled to fifteen when Paul Manning (GB),
Henrik Olden (Sweden), James Griffiths (Wales), Marek Salinski (Legia), Jason
Crookham (Jet Fuel Coffee), Brendan Docherty (Antrim UCF), Bran de Ward (Holland),
Robert Koj (Legia), Oscar Stenstrom (Sweden) and Nicholas White (HSBC South
Africa) joined the fray and helped open the gap to 1'43" to the main field.
Alarm bells started ringing in the bunch and the Ireland Shannon Oaks Hotel
team of McCann were forced to lead the chase. Ably assisted by Tommy Evans,
Aiden Duff and Mark Scanlon, McCann limited his losse to a mere 34 seconds on
the line.
In front
of a huge crowd, in glorious sunshine, 19 year old Dirk Reichl of the German
Telekom-Jan Ullrich team took the stage win,after tremendous riding by his teammate
Christian Knees. Henrik Olden of the Swedish Malarenergi team took second with
Krisystoff Zasada of the Polish professional squad Legia Bazylisek taking third.
Ireland's Morgan Fox held on for fourth on the stage and moved up to second
overall, just 4" down on the young German.
It was
a good day for the Telekom team. They won the stage, held the race lead, the
mountains jersey and the best under 23 competition lead, all courtesy of Reichl.
They also lead the international team competition from Legia Bazylisek of Poland
and Malarenergi of Sweden. It was not so good for pr-race favourite and Great
Britain rider, Chris Newton. Newton abandoned halfway through the stage suffering
from a foot condition caused by having a veruka removed last week.
David McCann
wa not too worried about losing his race lead "I'm not dissapointed at
all really" he said "I didn't lose too much time, and when you have
the jersey there is a lot of pressure on you to defend it, so maybe it's a good
thing in a way." Young race leader Dirk Reichl was beaming at the finish.
"Last year I was in school and I had a job. " he said "This year
I am concentrating on cycling and trying to turn professional. This race is
very fast, very hard, but it's good!"
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