Irish success continued yesterday on stage eight of the Herald Sun Tour in Australia when Dundrum cyclist Aidan Duff swept to a superb win in the world-ranked race. The 24-year-old broke clear in a group containing team-mate Ciaran Power shortly after the start of the 91 km afternoon stage, covered the attacks of the other eight present, then forged ahead with 50 kilometres remaining to storm to an impressive 51 second victory. Power sprinted home third on the stage, moving up to sixth overall and closing to within 25 seconds of the race leader, Steve Williams of Australia.

"A few of us went clear from the gun," said Duff, "and there was a lot of attacking from the group. The fourth-placed rider overall was there, so people didn't really want to work together. There was constant jumping around instead, so I waited until things settled down then attacked the group.

"I was hoping that one or two riders would come up to me, but the gap opened on my own and I just put my head down and went for it. It's great, this is the biggest win I have had."

With Duff and Power placing fourth and seventh respectively in yesterday's short morning race, confidence is running high in the Irish camp. David McCann and Duff are currently first and second overall in the sprints competition, and also dominate the classification to determine the most aggressive rider, with Duff heading this one. The Latrobe City-sponsored quintet is also second in the team competition.

What's more, both the riders and team manager PJ Nolan feel that Power can win the race. The death of his grandfather last week nearly prompted his withdrawal from the team, but he bravely opted to start; now the Waterford rider finds himself just 25 seconds away from yellow, with seven stages remaining.

Spanish national road race champion Alvaro Gonzalez de Galdeano has asserted his innocence after a positive test for the anabolic steroid nandrolone.

"When the word doping is mentioned it is shocking, but I am confident and calm because I know that I am not guilty," he said.

The rider and his Vitalicio team believe that the positive test was due to contaminated food supplements imported from the United States.

He tested positive on August 20th just before the Tour of Spain in which he won the 15th stage ending in Gijon. He now risks a ban of between six months and a year.