Evans takes first yellow

Cycling FBD Milk Rás: This year's race may have the strongest international field ever assembled for the FBD Milk Rás, yet yesterday's opening leg saw an Irishman take a fine stage win - and the yellow jersey to boot.

Tommy Evans faced off torrential downpours, gusting winds and almost 100 ambitious, aggressive foreign riders on the road to Roscrea and, at the end of the 84-mile stage, he was first to the line, arm raised in triumph and the field in his wake.

While David O'Loughlin and defending champion Ciarán Power are seen as the team's two big leaders, Evans's success is not totally unexpected. He is called Le Guerrier (The Warrior) by his VC La Pomme team-mates in France, and yesterday's stage suited him to a tee. Testing conditions, tough racing and a ferocious scrap in the closing miles; it was the perfect battlefield for the tough, tactically astute Belfastman, who landed the fourth stage win of his career.

In contrast to the hectic climax of the day, the stage started in a particularly controlled manner. Breakaway attempts were given little leeway by the attentive main field, with several groups gaining 20 or 30 seconds before being clinically reeled in. The first serious move came just before the second hot-spot sprint in Montmellick, when four professionals put their heads down - and the speed right up.

Adam Hodges Myerson (Team Sportsbook.com), Matthew Yates (Team Down Under) and the Bianchi-Scandinavia pairing of Jonas Holmkvist and Thomas Lovkvist, opened a 30-second gap, yet, despite the later collaboration of Ari Hojgaard (Denmark Jylland Fyn), they were recaptured after 13 miles up front.

Then Kazakh Maxim Iglinskiv made his bid for victory on the day's only categorised climb, opening up a 30-second lead on The Cut. But after several lonely miles at the head of the race he, too, was overhauled.

That paved the way for Evans's successful move, the 1996 FBD Milk Rás winner going clear with 2001 champion Paul Manning and Hojgaard with 15 miles remaining and successfully fending off the peloton's desperate attempts to get back on terms.

Working well together, the trio opened a considerable lead on the wind-buffeted main roads into Roscrea. A three-up gallop looked inevitable, but Manning cramped one mile from the finish, leaving Evans to take a decisive win ahead of Hojgaard and the first yellow jersey of the race.

"I've got the stage win I came for, so that's my race completed," he joked afterwards, thoughts of an early exit the furthest thing from his mind. "It's two years since I won a stage and that was my big goal coming into the Rás. It would have perhaps been better not to take yellow on the first day, as it will put a lot of pressure on the team, but, then again, you don't pass over a chance like this."

With seven tough stages yet to come, the Irish team are unlikely to defend Evans's four-second lead on today's 117-mile stage to Clifden. This longest stage of the race promises to be a tough affair, and with Power and O'Loughlin as the squad's main hopes for the overall classification, manager Frankie Campbell is likely to instruct the team to save their strength for later in the week.

Still, this early success can only have a positive effect; morale is up, the pressure is off and now Evans will be considered a big danger by the team's rivals. There's a long way yet to go, but this opening act has been an encouraging one.

FBD MILK RÁS - Stage One (Dublin - Roscrea): 1. Tommy Evans (Team Ireland/Irish Sports Council) 84 miles in 3 hours 26 mins 37 secs (24.4 mph); 2. A Hojgaard (Denmark Jylland-Fyn) same time; 3. C Stevenson (Team Down Under - Australia) at 20 secs; 4. C Newton (Britain); 5. A Bazayev (Kazakhstan); 6. M Yates (Team Down Under - Australia); 7. J Holmkvist (Bianchi Scaninavia - Sweden); 8. M Iglinskiv (Kazakhstan); 9. A Hodges Myerson (Team Sportsbook.com - US); 10. P Manning (Britain) - all same time. Hot Spot Prime (with Bonuses): Newbridge: 1. David Harrigan (Team Down Under - Australia) 3 secs; 2. A Crowley (Meath Lee Strand Cycleways) 2; 3. Hodges Myerson, 1 sec. Mountmellick: 1. Jonas Holmkvist (Team Bianchi-Scandinavia) 3 secs; 2. Hodges Myers, at 2 secs; 3. M Yates (Team Down Under ). The Cut: 1. Maxim Iglinskiv (Kazakhstan) 3 secs; 2. Harrigan, 2; 3. T Lovkvist (Bianchi-Scandinavia ) 1. King of the Mountains (at The Cut): 1. Iglinskiv, 5; 2. Harrigan, 4; 3. Lovkvist, 3; 4. Andrey Medyannikov (Kazakhstan) 2. County rider: Eddie O'Donoghue (Dublin Usher Insulations) 3 hours 26 mins 57 secs. International team: 1. Ireland/Irish Sports Council, 10 hours 20 mins 31 secs. County team: Meath Lee Strand Cycleways 10 hours 20 mins 51 secs Overall classification: 1. Evans, 3 hours 26 mins 27 secs; 2. Hojgaard, at 4 secs; 3. Harrigan, at 25 secs; 4. Stevenson, at 26 secs; 5. Holmkvist, at 27 secs; 6. Iglinskiv; 7. Hodges Myerson; 8. Crowley, at 28 secs; 9. Yates, at 29 secs; 10. Lovkvist, at 29 secs.