The Irish were eclipsed again in the FBD Milk Ras yesterday as stage three from Tubbercurry to Westport went to Englishman Dave Williams. At the end of the 106 miles that included a spectacular loop of 16 miles around Achill, Williams led in a breakaway group of eight with no Irishman among them.
With 10 miles to go the leaders had an advantage of two minutes over the next group with the main pack at 2:10. At that stage Jasuhiro Ando of Japan was set to take over the lead from Kosie Loubser of South Africa but, at the finish, the was gap was down to a minute and 21 seconds and Loubser held on to the yellow jersey by 11 seconds as the race heads for Kilrush today.
Williams, 32 from Southport, riding with the UK Bentec team, was second overall to Paul McQuaid in 1995, when he also won a stage. He sprinted out of the leading group inside the last mile and at the finish in Bridge Street he was two seconds clear of Jeroen Slagter of the Netherlands with Colin Roshier (Surrey) third. It was the second win in a row for the UK Bentec team as Jeff Wright was first into Tubbercurry on Sunday.
Tommy Evans, Ireland's number one, was best of the Irish after he finished second in a bunch sprint for ninth place behind Sigvard Kukk (Estonia). Mayo's David O'Loughlin was safely in the big group and remains best of the Irish in third place overall, 31 seconds behind Loubser. Uwe Hardier of Germany is fourth with Kukk next. Evans is sixth and Ciaran Power seventh.
Although Evans was involved in an early move he got a puncture but, for the most part, the Ireland team were conspicuous by their absence from the action at the front at crucial times. Ciaran Power was involved in an unsuccessful early breakaway attempt but even when a group of 30 got together at the head of affairs after 52 miles only Karl Donnelly's green jersey was included. However, when they split he was not to the fore.
Approaching Achill (62 miles) Slagter went ahead and was joined first by Ando and Stephane Rifflet (France) and then by Roshier, Fumio Shiogami (Japan) and Dennis Haueisen (Germany) with Williams last to link up. Brian Kenneally joined Donnelly in the chasing group but they never looked like getting up to the leaders.
Slagter led Ando over the first of the three Achill climbs, then Rifflet was ahead of Shiogami and Ando on the second. On the first category third climb Randle was first from Rifflet and Ando. As Ando had three points from Sunday he now heads of the King of the Mountains classification with 27 points to 25 for Rifflet and 24 for Randle.
Starting the foreign invasion of Achill the leaders were a minute ahead and they had increased their advantage by 20 seconds when leaving. At 85 miles the lead was one minute 40 seconds and at the 10 miles to go board it had been stretched to two minutes. Ando, who the was highest placed of the breakaways in 11th at one minute 30 seconds, had most to gain and was assisted at the front by his team-mate Shiogami.
Williams had been in an earlier unsuccessful break and he said he took it easy when the decisive move got well established. "I knew with 30 miles to go I would beat all the others in the break so I just took it easy and waited for my chance."
On a slight rise before the kilometre to go marker Williams got away and although he only gained a slight advantage he was never in danger of being overhauled and he came up along the finishing stretch with lengths to spare.
As the big main pack drew nearer Westport the deficit was being reduced mile by mile with the yellow jersey holder and his team-mates prominent in the chase and they arrived in time for Loubser to retain his lead by 11 seconds going into today's longest stage of 116 miles through Ballinrobe, Galway and Ennis to Kilrush.
