CYCLING TOUR OF IRELANDTHREE OUT of three. Mark Cavendish yesterday nabbed his third successive win in this year's Tour of Ireland when he was quickest in the 93-man gallop which decided the stage to Galway.
Showing the same speed which landed him four stages in this year's Tour de France, the 23-year-old Manx man hit the line in Salthill comfortably clear of Bernardo Riccio (Tinkoff Credit Systems) and Julian Dean (Garmin Chipotle).
Belgian Kenny Lisabeth was sixth for the Irish-registered An Post M Donnelly Grant Thornton Seán Kelly team, while Ciarán Power was once again best of the home riders when he placed seventh.
Cavendish's dominance saw him further extend his race lead, ending the day 20 seconds ahead of Dean and 25 up on Alexander Kristoff (Joker Bianchi). He is two days away from winning the 2.1-ranked race, although he and his team are understandably cautious about their chances of defending the sprinter's lead on the mountainous final stages.
Even so, Columbia riders Michael Barry and Marco Pinotti are both 34 seconds back and poised to strike if needs be.
"I knew I could win the first three stages, and I think that in other years I could maybe go for the general classification here and all five stages, I think, but I lost a lot of form by going to the Olympics," Cavendish said after the stage.
"I don't think I am going to go for the overall here. I think my job is done now. I will defend the yellow jersey as best as possible, but we have other options as well in case we need it."
Power is best Irishman overall in 12th, 34 seconds back. Like Cavendish, he crashed on the descent off the last climb, but recovered to dispute the sprint finish. He felt he could have done better than seventh on the stage had he been less cautious at the end.
"I felt really, really strong today, but because I had already crashed I was very cautious on the last corner before the finish," he said. "We came around it and I let rip really early and passed a load of guys, but then it was too late to move up even more."
The 201 kilometre stage from Ballinrobe looped through Connemara and featured two category two climbs, a pair of category three ascents and three An Post intermediate sprints.
The Tour continues with two more difficult stages. Today's leg takes the riders 186 kilometres from Limerick to Dingle, crossing the category one climb of the Conor Pass and the second-cat Mount Eagle in the final 50 kilometres, while tomorrow's final stage to Cork ends with four ascents of the gruelling St Patrick's Hill.
