Cycling/Rás report: The suspense continues. Yesterday's stage may have been billed as one of the hardest of this year's FBD Insurance Rás, but it proved one of the least decisive.

After 143 kilometres of racing 54 riders finished within 25 seconds of each other on the streets of Abbeyleix, the two category one ascents and three other climbs after the start in Templemore failing to splinter the main bunch.

First place on yesterday's stage went to Morten Christiansen, the Norway-Sparebanken Vest rider proving quickest of eight breakaway riders inside the final 200 metres. Irish riders Simon Kelly (Cork Nucleus) and Roger Aiken (Louth-Safe Cycling) did what they could to take top honours, but Christiansen's speed plus the strong leadout he got from team-mate Are Andresen proved enough for him to take the win.

Five seconds later, Meath Cycleways.com rider Eugene Moriarty led home the main bunch for ninth. Yet the placing was scant consolation to the Kerryman, who lost his King of the Mountains jersey to 2000 race winner Julian Winn when the latter took three of the day's climbs. Hot on Moriarty's heels in the sprint were Chris Newton (GB-Recycling.co.uk) and Malcolm Elliott (Yorkshire-Trinity Capital), the English duo thus preserving their first and second places overall.

The rest of the general classification stayed essentially unchanged, although Tim Barry (Tipperary Dan Morrissey) moved up one place to fourth while Conor Murphy (Ireland- Grant Thornton) punctured at a bad time and dropped from ninth to 38th overall.

"I am very pleased with how things went," said Christiansen. "The team wanted to win something today. I attacked early on and was clear over some of the climbs, but eventually went back to the bunch. I got away again, though, near the end and we stayed clear until the finish. There, my team-mate Are Andresen led out the sprint for me, and it worked out perfectly."

Despite being close to his first Rás stage win, Kelly was content with his placing. "I started the sprint in third place," he said. "The winner had a good leadout from his team-mate, came around me and was too quick for me to get by him again. "But I am happy with second, as my previous best stage finish was eighth."

The race continues today with a 160 kilometre cycle from Abbeyleix to Rathdrum. Although devoid of serious climbs, the general classification hopefuls have just three more stages to depose Newton, and will do all they can to put him into difficulty.

StageFiveResults:

Stage Five (Templemore-Abbeyleix): 1 M Christiansen (Norway-Sparebanken Vest) 143 kms in 3 hrs 23 mins 13 secs; 2 S Kelly (Cork Nucleus); 3 R Aiken (Louth-Safe Cycling); 4 M Lovatt (Yorkshire-Trinity Capital); 5 K Miller (Canada-Jet Fuel Coffee) all s.t.; 6 R Krotky (Cze Rep-Elmarco KK Cube) at 2 secs; 7 D Lynch (Cork-Kanturk) s.t,; 8, A Andresen (Norway-Sparebanken Vest) at 5 secs; 9 E Moriarty (Meath Cycleways.com); 10 C Newton (Bri-Recycling.co.uk)

County rider: 1 T Greene (Kildare Ena Loakman Remax) 3 hrs 28 mins 46 secs.

Primes: The Crag, category 1: 1 P Healion (Dublin Usher Insulation) 15 pts; 2 Lovatt, 12; 3 D Urquhart (Sco) 10. Grangehill, category 3: 1 J Winn (Wales-Stena Line) 5 pts; 2 Healion, 4 pts; 3 S Gallagher (Ireland-Grant Thornton) 3 pts. The Butts, category 1: 1 Winn 15 pts; 2 S Remme (Norway-Sparebanken Vest) 12; 3 Gallagher, 10. Uskerty Hill, category 2: 1 Winn 10 pts; 2 Gallagher 8; 3 Healion. Glenmagoo, category 2: 1 M Urban (Germany-Stevens von Hacht) 10; 2 E Moriarty (Meath-Cycleways.com) 8; 3 Christiansen 6.

General Classification: 1 C Newton (Bri-Recycling.co.uk) 18 hrs 40 secs; 2 Elliott, at 8 secs; 3 M Hegreberg (Norway-Sparebanken Vest) at 2 mins 16 secs.

Points: 1 C Newton, 62 pts; 2 Elliott, 57; 3, Hegreberg, 42

Mountains: 1 Winn 35; 2 E Moriarty 31; 3 Lovatt, 31

U/23: 1 S Gillespie (US-TIAA CREF) 18 hrs 5 mins 51 secs; 4 P O'Brien (Ireland-Grant Thornton) at 4 mins 56 secs; 5, M. Cassidy (Meath-Cycleways.com) at 5 mins 13 secs.

County rider overall: 1 T Barry, 14 hrs 39 mins 54 secs; 2 S Lacey (Meath-M Donnelly) at 3 mins 43 secs; 3, Roche, at 4 mins

Second category rider: 1 M McLeavey (Dublin Dundrum Shopping Centre) 10 hrs 47 mins 9 secs; 2 B Meehan (Tipperary Worldwide Cycles) at 6 secs; 3 T Greene (Kildare Ena Loakman Remax) at 13 mins 4 secs

International team overall: 1 Yorkshire-Trinity Capital, 54 hrs 10 mins 38 secs; 2 Norway-Sparebanken Vest, at 3 mins 4 secs; 3 Bri-Recycling.co.uk, at 9 mins 3 secs; 4 Ireland-Grant Thornton, at 11 mins 37 secs; 5 Wales-Stena Line, at 14 mins 23 secs

County team overall: 1 Meath Cycleways.com, 54 hrs 25 mins 32 secs; 2 Tipperary Dan Morrissey, at 1 min 24 secs; 3 Meath M Donnelly, at 4 mins 7 secs; 4 Tipperary Worldwide Cycles, at 6 mins 44 secs; 5 Cork Nucleus, at 7 mins 25 secs