Russell Downing of Candi TV – Marshalls Pasta has won the Tour of Ireland 2009 after a scintillating display of classic cycling in the near monsoon conditions of Cork City, writes Tadhg Peavoy.
Englishman Downing was second to Norwegian Lars Petter Nordhaug at the finish on St Patrick’s Hill, but took victory overall in the General Classification.
Nordhaug won the third and final stage in a time of 4 hours and 10 seconds.
The 185km stage began this morning in Bantry and there were several breakaways through the day.
However, coming into Cork City it was a breakaway by a small group of nine riders that that set the pace.
Among these were Downing, defending champion Marco Pinotti and third-placed Matti Breschel.
On the final circuit of the city Downing made a break with Nordhaug which they managed to maintain, crossing the line with a 30 second lead.
Downing – who celebrates his 31st birthday today – also claimed the green Points jersey on 31 points; a point for every year.
Australian Matt Wilson of Team Type 1 retained his title in the Mountains competition with 39 points and Dane Matti Breschel of Team Saxo Bank won the Young Rider award.
The race started at Bantry today in torrid conditions which scarcely improved for the entire day’s racing. Early on their were breaks from Bernard Eisel of Team Columbia – HTC and Jef Peeters of the An Post Sean Kelly Team. They were both reeled in without much difficulty.
There was an early category three climb at Ballybane which was won by Peeters.
Following this there were further attempts at a break from a large group of 20 riders including Pinotti of Team Columbia with Stuart O’Grady and Jakob Fuglsang of Team Saxo Bank.
After 31km of racing the peleton combined again. A further 20 rider split occurred with Joker Bianchi’s Alexander Kristoff and Rabobank’s Steven Kruijswijk being the main threats to the General Classification from the bunch.
Going at 66km per hour they established a 33 second lead, but were reeled in by the main group.
Jackson Stewart and Jack Bobridge of BMC Racing and the Australian National Team had a further inconsequential break.
Another twenty man group made a break, but it was just before the first An Post Sprint of the day at Leap Post Office that the action really got underway. Saxo Bank’s Stuart O’Grady made an attack with Jay Thomson of MTN – Energade and Jetse Bol of Rabobank. These men took the first sprint points in that order.
O’Grady and Thomson powered along at a powerful pace and dropped Bol shortly afterwards. The pair opened up a lead of 1 minute 17 seconds. This put O’Grady as virtual leader on the road.
Travelling at an average speed of 70km an hour the peleton was hot on their heels and desperate to snuff out the evident danger O’Grady possessed.
Coming into the first circuit of Cork City the rain was pelting down and the organisers deemed it unsafe for the riders to complete three circuits and the course was changed to two.
Lance Armstrong, who has been quiet both on and off the road this week, agreed with them and pulled out before even attempting a circuit of the city.
Jay Thomson at this point lost control of his bike and crashed, losing his front wheel and any hope of glory in the process.
O’Grady’s determined and aggressive breakaway was eventually brought to a close. A group of seven riders, which soon became nine, and then ten, caught and passed the Australian.
This group was to battle and jockey for the overall GC and stage victory to the end.
It was a group of Pinotti, Breschel, Downing, Nordhaug and Craig Lewis of Columbia, Karsten Kroon and Alexander Kolobnev of Saxo Bank, Mathias Frank of BMC, Matt Wilson and Steven Kruijswijk.
The group had 10 to 15 seconds on the peleton. For the last circuit the race was a ding dong battle of breaks, counter breaks and chasing efforts.
Nordhaug and Downing were the first to attempt to break followed by Pinotti, as Kruijswijk was dropped altogether.
Matti Breschel of Saxo Bank seemed a likely winner at this stage and was going strong, but Downing was going stronger.
With 5km to go the yellow jersey wearer Downing made a decisive charge with Nordhaug. That was the last the pack would see of them.
Nordhaug was first across the line followed by Downing, who celebrated by doing a BMX style-skid and collapsing to the ground.
Perhaps the real victor of the day was the weather. The disgustingly wet, windy and dangerous conditions contributed to 56 riders retiring from the race. This left only 47 men still standing come the end of racing.
RESULTS:
Stage 3 Result: Bantry to Cork City
1 Lars Petter Nordhaug (NOR) Joker Bianchi 4h00’10”
2 Russell Downing (GBR) Candi TV – Marshalls Pasta 4h00’10”
3 Matti Breschel (DEN) Team Saxo Bank 4h’00’43”
4 Craig Lewis (USA) Team Columbia - HTC 4h00’43”
5 Alexander Kolobnev (RUS) Team Saxo Bank 4h00’43”
General Classification:
1 Russell Downing (GBR) Candi TV – Marshalls Pasta 14h18’03”
2 Lars Petter Nordhaug (NOR) Joker Bianchi 14h18’26” +23”
3 Matti Breschel (DEN) Team Saxo Bank 14h18’46” +43”
Points Competition:
1 Russell Downing (GBR) Candi TV – Marshalls Pasta 31 pts
2 Matti Breschel (DEN) Team Saxo Bank 27 pts
3 Alexander Kolobnev (RUS) Team Saxo Bank 25 pts
Mountains Competition:
1 Matt Wilson (AUS) Team Type 1 39 pts
2 Marco Pinotti (ITA) Team Columbia 25 pts
3 Craig Lewis (USA) Team Columbia 15 pts
Young Rider Competition:
1 Matti Breschel (DEN) Team Saxo Bank 14h18’46”
2 Mathias Frank (SUI) BMC Racing Team +20”
3 Craig Lewis (USA) Team Columbia +22”
