GERMAN STAGE WIN, BRITISH SNATCH JERSEY
by Gerard Cromwell
Today's 5th stage of the FBD Milk Ras took the riders from Killorglin to Skibeereen,
a journey of 102 miles. With ten mountain climbs along the way, it was to prove
the toughest of this year's Ras. An early breakaway group formed just 3 miles
into the stage. In it were four Irish riders, Denis O'Shea of Kerry, former
Irish champion Ray Clarke (Derry Classic Walls NCBI) and Meath Cycleways duo
of Phillip Cassidy and Eugene Moriarty. They were accompanied by South Africa
HBSC rider Nick White and held an advantage of one minute by the time they reached
the first category climb of Ladies View, at 24 miles.
Over the top, local man O'Shea took the points from White, as a six man chase
group of David O'Loughlin (Mayo Connaught Gold), Erik Saunders (Fisconseils
Switzerland), James Hodnett (Meath East), Huw Pritchard (Wales), Brian Steele
(Great Britain), Peter Wedge (Canada Jet Fuel Coffee) and Aiden Duff (Ireland
Shannon Oaks Hotel) were joined by Eddie O'Donoghue (Carlow Dan Morrisey) and
Swedish duo Ole Simonsen and Kjell Carlstrom, 1'00" further down the mountain.
Tommy Evans of Ireland and Dominique Perras of Fisconseils followed at 2'00",
with the main field at 2'30".
After the second KOM at Molls Gap, won by White, from O'Shea, the lead was 1'05"
to the chasers with the peleton at 3'35". Marek Blasej (Poland Legia Baszylisek)
led the charge up Turners Rock, splitting the main field in half behind. Over
the next few climbs, O'Shea began to tire and found himself back in the chase
group. This group in turn, found themselves back inthe main field as the Great
Britain and German teams began to take up the chase. By Schull, at 78 miles,
the peleton had come together behind, leaving the five leaders alone up front.
With O'Shea gone, White having punctured and having a hard chase to get back
on, and Cassidy tiring, the gap was down to just over 1'00" leaving Schull.
Julian Winn and the Welsh team were to the fore of the peleton as the gap came
down to 44" at Balydehobb (83 miles). On the run-in to Skibbereen, Christian
Knees (Germany Telekom) and David McCann (Ireland) tried to jump across the
gap. With a lot of jumping going on in the main field, Clarke,Moriarty, and
White held a slim 40" advantage at 10kms to go, with the Swiss Fisconseils
squad driving the bunch along. Cassidy, having ridden hard to try and put Moriarty
in yellow in his home county was rapidly losing time, having been dropped inside
the 15kms to go mark.
In Skibereen, the front of the peleton just caught the leaders with Germany
Telekom's Christian Knees taking the sprint from Jukla Heinekenen (Sweden Malarenergi)
and Paul Manning of Great Britain, with Eugene Moriarty (Meath Cycleways) and
Ray Clarke (Derry Classic Walls NCBI) gamely holding on for 4th and 5th places
on the stage. Phil Cassidy collapsed from sheer exhaustion on the line, and
lay in the road for a while, but after some water and treatment from the Red
Cross was back on his feet again. Great Britain's Paul Manning now leads the
FBD MILK Ras, by virtue of his stage placings with Knees second on the same
time. "I think we're strong enough to keep the jersey." said Manning
afterwards. "I'm feeling strong and all the other guys in the team are
going well. We'll have a talk about it later on. We have a good chance, although
saying that, I think the Telekom team are another very strong team and will
be a threat overall."
20 year old Christian Knees was happy with his stage win. "Today was a
hard day, because of the three first category climbs." he said. "At
the finish, I was lucky to get across to the leaders. I wanted the yellow jersey,
so that's why I attacked."
Yet another unlucky day for Ray Clarke, it was the second time a breakaway group
involving the Derry rider had been gobbled up within sight of the finish. "It's
the story of my life at the moment." said Clarke "We just went from
the line. At one stage we had nearly three minutes, but the teams are good here.
They're able to ride at the front, keep it tempo, so I knew. I didn't expect
to stay out there for as long as we did. At the finish we had five or ten seconds.
I was going to try and get some time today, but I'll have to try again tomorrow!"
David Chassot (Fisconseils Switzerland) was dissapointed at losing his yellow
jersey today "I'm dissapointed, but it's normal, with six men at the same
time, it' not a surprise. I don't think it's finished though. Saturday is another
hard day!"
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