CYCLING/Tour of Ireland:Showing fine sprinting speed after a tough day's climbing around the Beara Peninsula, Matti Breschel beat 39 other riders to win yesterday's second stage of the Tour of Ireland into Killarney.
The Dane benefited from strong work by his CSC team in the closing stages of the stage, with their driving at the front hauling back Brian Kenneally (Ireland) with about 10km to go and then a later move by US rider Danny Pate (Slipstream Chipotle).
Breschel outsprinted Edvald Boasson Hagen (Maxbo Bianchi), Bernhard Eisel (T-Mobile) and the other 37 in that group, with Paul Griffin (Ireland) best of the home riders in 16th place. This was one ahead of former national champion David McCann (Colavita-Sutter Home), while race leader Stijn Vandenbergh (Unibet.com) was two places further back and retained his yellow jersey.
"My team did great work. They drove the pace to bring back the breakaways and to win the stage. It worked out well," Breschel said. "With about 400 metres to go the LPR rider (Borut Bozic) started the sprint but it was too far for him. I went with about 250 metres to go and it was just right."
Vandenbergh was also very happy, given that he held on to the race lead.
"Yesterday was my first pro win and also the first time for me to take a yellow jersey since I was a junior rider," he said. "So I'm very pleased. I felt very good today. The only problem was when I punctured early on, it took a while to get back on. But I hope that things go well tomorrow."
The 166km stage started in Clonakilty and took the riders over five categorised climbs, including the first category Healy Pass and the second category Moll's Gap. Numerous attacks combined with the tough nature of the course saw the field whittled down to a 49-man front group.
All the Irish riders missed Wednesday's crucial, 10-man break and were keen to make amends yesterday, riding aggressively throughout. Irish road race champion David O'Loughlin (Navigators Insurance) attacked after the drop of the flag in Clonakilty, going clear in a short-lived move, then he, Griffin, Philip Deignan, Brian Kenneally (all of the Ireland national team), Mark Cassidy (Murphy and Gunn/Sean Kelly) and McCann were all part of the select front group which formed during the race.
Prior to the big climb of the Healy Pass, the 2006 Rás winner Kristian House (Navigators Insurance) went clear with Gordon McCauley, and the duo crossed the summit in that order. The large chasing group split on the climb, with Deignan prominent, then things came back together on the descent to form a 40-odd front group.
Griffin attacked going over the top of the final climb of Moll's Gap and tried to chase lone leader Sergey Lagutin (Navigators Insurance). He was brought back by the large chasing group, but then Kenneally went clear and caught and passed the Uzbekistani rider.
"I attacked the group after the top of the Moll's Gap," said Kenneally. "I know the descent fairly well and closed up to the Navigators guy (Lagutin). I was hoping the two of us would work together but he sat up. I kept going but it was a long way in to the finish."
Vandenbergh will begin today's mainly flat, 194km stage from Tralee to Ennis leading closest challenger Marcus Ljungqvist (CSC) by 20 seconds. McCann is best of the Irish in 20th, 13 minutes and 45 seconds back.
