Murdoch's luck changes

Peter Murdoch of Scotland won yesterday's sixth stage of the Junior Tour into Mullingar but with two stages to go Alain van Katwijk of Holland looks all set to take the overall honours.

At the end of the 46 miles from Ballinasloe, Murdoch beat Nick Vaz (English East Midlands) with Alan Crowley of Cork third and another member of the East Midlands team, Robin Sharman, was three seconds adrift.

However, van Katwijk was in the big group with all his main rivals at 16 seconds so there were no changes at the top of the classification sheet. Bart Marien of Belgium was best in the sprint for fifth place and this put him back in the lead in the points classification.

Fortune did not smile on Murdoch on the first few days as he tried to get into the important moves only to suffer a crash and three punctures. He was third on Thursday and it went even better for him yesterday as he was in the decisive break and finished it all off in great style by sprinting to victory.

Dermot Nally (Emerald) made a few unsuccessful attampts to break away but then, at Ballymahon, with 20 miles to go, Murdoch, Vaz, Crowley and Sharman forged ahead. When their lead went to almost a minute, with Sharman an obvious threat, van Katwijk went to the front of the pack and reduced the gap but the leaders held on and Murdoch led the way across the line.

So, with 56 miles today, including three laps of a finishing circuit at Navan and then eight laps of almost seven miles at Drogheda tomorrow, van Katwijk has a commanding lead of 57 seconds over Derek Finnegan (Telecom) with Ireland team members Mark Scanlon and David McQuaid third and fourth at 59 seconds and 1:09.

Nally and last year's winner, Barry Twohig of the Ireland team, are next in order but they are at 1:11 and 1:16 respectively and van Katwijk seems poised to become the second Dutch winner of the event - Richard Groenendal was successful in 1988 and he went on to take the World cyclocross championship.

Stage Six (46 miles from Ballinasloe to Mullingar) - 1, P Murdoch (Scotland) 1 hr 40 mins 55 secs; 2, N Vaz (English East Midlands); 3, A Crowley (Cork) all same time; 4, R Sharman (East Midlands) at 3 secs; 5, B Marien (Belgium) 16; 6, J McCallum (Scot); 7, M Lonie (Scot); 8, T de Munck (Bel); 9, M Scanlon (Ireland); 10, D Nally (Emerald) all same time.

Overall - 1, A van Katwijk (Holland) 13:24:43; 2, D Finnegan (Telecom) at 57 secs; 3, Scanlon 59; 4, D McQuaid (Ireland) 1:09; 5, Nally 1:11; 6, B Twohig (Ireland) 1:16; 7, N Swittenbank (Britain) 1:27; 8, S Prendergast (Amev) 1:29; 9, Sharman 1:33; 10, R Verspaandouk (Holland) 1:43.

Points - 1, Marien 37; 2, J van Laer (Belgium) 33; 3, van Katwijk 32. Mountains - 1, Twohig 16 pts; 2, Prendergast 10; 3, A Jackson (Cleveland Wh) 9.

Teams - 1, Ireland 40:17:21; 2, Britain at 8:37; 3, Telecom 10:48.