CYCLING:AFTER SURVIVING the wind and rain and tough mountains of Wednesday's stage, race leader Gediminas Bagdonas had a much more straightforward day on yesterday's fifth day of the An Post Rás.

The Lithuanian benefited from strong work by his An Post Grant Thornton M Donnelly Seán Kelly team-mates on the 156 undulating kilometres between Castletownbere and Blarney, and together they were able to contain all serious attacks on his yellow jersey.

The stage was won by the New Zealand-rider Myron Simpson, who jumped clear of a long distance breakaway move inside the final three kilometres and managed to hold off the fast charge of the main peloton.

Second went to breakaway companion Tobyn Horton (Team Motorpoint), who was almost overhauled in the big sprint to the line some four seconds later.

“I thought we were going to get caught,” Simpson admitted, referring to the big chase driven by the An Post and Ukraine ISD-Lampre teams. “But the Drapac guy (Australian Lachlann Norris) attacked over the top of the last hill, which forced the other five guys to chase him.

“We caught him with about six kilometres left and then I put my head down with three kilometres to go and went solo.”

Bagdonas finished ninth, preserving his one minute 16 second lead over closest rivals Oleksandr Sheydyk (Ukraine ISD-Lampre) and Nikolay Mihaylov (France AVC Aix en Provence). Just three stages remain and it is looking increasingly possible that he could end up the final winner.

“Today was good . . . it was an easier day for me, but not for my team,” he said, clearly more relaxed in his role as race leader. “They did some very good work and I could sit on their wheels all day. I thank them for it.”

His jersey came under attack early on when a 12-man group went clear 15 kilometres after the start. His team-mate Mark Cassidy was there to police the move, but ultimately dropped back when it became clear that it was a threat. The source of danger was the presence of Nikolay Mihaylov (France AVC Aix en Provence), who started the day third overall and managed to bridge across to the move on the day’s second climb, Loughavaul.

Cassidy pooled his strength with the rest of the team and they managed to bring the break back 62 kilometres after the start. Almost immediately Norris and multiple Irish champion David O’Loughlin (Waterford Comeragh) clipped away. They were joined soon after by four others, namely Simpson, Johannes Kahra (Germany Thuringer Energie), Dean Windsor (Britain Rapha Condor Sharp) and Tobyn Horton (Britain Motorpoint) and, with the peloton deciding the move wasn’t an immediate danger, the gap soared to four minutes.

Windsor had started the day three minutes 42 seconds off yellow, though, and once he became virtual race leader, the An Post team moved into action and ramped up the chase. By the top of the day’s final climb of Windy Gap, the break’s advantage was down to a minute and a half; realising they could be caught over the remaining 25 kilometres, Norris clipped clear in search of the stage win. However he went too early, and instead it was Simpson who triumphed into Blarney.

The race continues today with an undulating 172 kilometre stage to Tramore.