OLYMPIC hope Philip Collins safely survived the final stage of the three day race in Blarney yesterday to retain his lead and take the overall honours.

It was more surprising that there were no changes to the top overall positions on the last stage of the AMEV Irish Road Club's event from Gorey back to Brittas and Barry Donnelly of the Eastern Region team managed to cling onto his one second advantage over Brian Lennon.

A group of 10 were clear at the end of the 60 miles in Blarney and David Peelo was first across the line from Welshman Darren Tudor with Michael O'Reilly third. Though unplaced Collins was there with his closest rival John Herety so Collins won overall by 29 seconds from Herety with Peelo third at 32 seconds.

As it was much tighter at the top of the classification in the Gorey race some changes were expected but although Ruairi Mitchell escaped near the end of the 63 miles to take the stage by five seconds Donnelly was still just a second ahead of Len non overall with Anthony Rock third at nine seconds and Mitchell next 14 seconds in arrears.

Karl Brannigan beat Anthony Doyle in the sprint for second place but the judges ruled that Donnelly and Lennon were also on the same time so Donnelly held on.

In the Tour of the North the fourth stage of 67 miles from Ballyclare to Banbridge was won by James Millar of Scotland but there were no changes overall so Wayne Randle leads by 16 seconds from Tommy Evans going into today's final stage from Larne to Ballymena.