After an ideal start to the Tour de France, with a win in the prologue time trial in Dublin on Saturday, Englishman Chris Boardman of the GAN team crashed out yesterday in the yellow jersey just before the bonus sprint at Youghal.
At the end of the 205 kilometres from Enniscorthy to Cork there was another victory for the Mapei team as Jan Svorada from the Czech Republic followed up the win by Tom Steels in the Phoenix Park on Sunday.
Although German champion Erik Zabel of Telekom missed out on a bonus in the final sprint, after finishing fifth, he earned 12 seconds in the bonus sprints along the way with a first, second and third, and now wears the yellow jersey as the Tour resumes on Bastille Day in France today with stage three of 169 kilometres from Roscoff to Lorient.
Zabel leads by seven seconds from Steels with Frederic Moncassin (GAN) on the same time. Abraham Olano (Banesto) is next at eight seconds followed by Laurent Jalabert (ONCE), Bobby Julich (Cofidis), Christophe Moreau (Festina) and Jan Ullrich (Telekom), who are all another second behind.
Steels stays in the green jersey as points leader with 63 points to Svorada's 57, with Robbie McEwen (Rabobank) on 56 and Zabel on 55. Stefano Zanini (Mapei) also holds the King of the Mountains polka dot jersey as he was third at the two checkpoints along the route.
Boardman was always in danger of losing the yellow jersey yesterday but fortune also conspired against him when, just before the sprint in Youghal, a rider in front fell and Boardman had no chance of avoiding the faller.
It appeared to be a member of the ONCE team who went down and Boardman, who was in about 20th position in the string, crashed heavily. He was attended by the Tour doctor and was taken to hospital, where he was said to have sustained a fractured wrist, was `battered and bruised', but had not sustained head injuries. He is expected to be released today.
Last year, Boardman crashed on the descent from the Col du Solour and pulled out two days later, still suffering from his injuries.
In the Waterford sprint, half-an-hour behind schedule due to painfully slow progress from Enniscorthy, Steels won from Zabel with Moncassin third. The population of Carrick-on-Suir swelled for the detour of the Tour through the town and the Carrick sprint went to Jan Kirsipuu (Casino) with Moncassin and Zabel second and third.
Then on the third-category climb out of Carrick, Pascal Herve (Festina) powered away to take the 10 points followed by Christophe Agnolutto (Casino), Zanini, Jens Voigt (GAN) and Julich. On the third-category hill at Curtiswood, after Dungarvan, Marcos Serrano (Kelme) pipped Herve with Zanini third again.
With Boardman out, two of his team-mates, Eddy Seigneur and Francois Simon, broke away and pulled out a 1:26 lead by Midleton with 26 km to go. However, the pack quickly reeled them in by the 14 km mark.
Two kilometres later there was another big pile-up with red Saeco jerseys most prominent in the melee, but Mario Cipollini was not involved. It happened on a wide section of the dual carriageway at the Little Island by-pass when some riders were switching in and out around some cones on the road. Laurent Jalabert, Richard Virenque and Laurent Brochard fought their way back but Seigneur and Simon were among those left trailing.
There were 178 in the heaving, weaving pack as they raced through Cork, along Horgan's Quay, Patrick's Quay and over the bridge into Patrick Street and Washington Street, then Western Road and out on to the Carrigohane straight.
As usual in these massed charges for the line with the teams' lead-out men striving to get their sprinters to the fore, many appeared to have chances of winning but Svorada, who had taken the first sprint of the Tour at Bray on Sunday, hit the line first clear of McEwen with Cipollini third. Surprisingly, Zabel was back in 17th place.
