Ciaran Power went for glory in the FBD Milk Ras yesterday and although he finished at the rear of the leading group at the end of the 96 miles from Mallow to New Ross, he had scant reward for a hard day out in front.

The stage was won by Micheal Fitzgerald, riding with the Dublin Usher team - the third in a row for the Irish - with David Hourigan (Limerick) second and Jeroen Slagter (Netherlands) third. Frenchman Stephane Rifflet was fourth with Power next.

A late surge by the leader, Sigvard Kukk of Estonia, saved his yellow jersey - he held his slender advantage of 12 seconds over Tommy Evans - but Power's efforts improved the prospects of the Ireland team as he reduced his deficit from 57 seconds to just 17. However it is very tight at the top with Rifflet fourth at 27 seconds and mountains leader Wayne Randle (Manchester) also gaining valuable time and is now at 46 seconds.

Six miles after the start, Power joined Hourigan at the front and Rifflet and Richard Hobby (Lincoln) got across to them. Hobby dropped back to the following group and the maximum advantage the three leaders built up over Kukk was four minutes and 15 seconds at Lemybrien (65 miles).

At that point Power looked all set to take the overall lead by a good margin going into today's tough mountain stage to Ballymore Eustace but with a strong troublesome wind, the leaders were unable to maintain a fast enough pace and the bigger groups behind moved better towards the end.

Although Power improved his overall situation, he was obviously disappointed at the finish. "I had to ride for time but it was very hard out there." When I asked him about his prospects of full recovery for today, he added that he would just have to wait and see how he felt.

Ireland team manager Richie Beatty did not appear to be too bothered about Power not achieving his aim of going into today's stage with a good advantage. "I'm very confident we will win," he said.

"With the two best men on the team so well placed going into this important stage, we must be confident of winning. Power will recover all right, he'll be ready for whatever has to be done and although Evans had to chase down a few close rivals towards the end he had a fairly easy time and he will be ready too."

After Hobby dropped back from the leaders on the second category climb at The Sweep, he got in with Fitzgerald, Slagter, Kurt de Valkeneer (Belgium), Yasuhiro Ando (Japan) and Michael Gray (Southend). They were joined by another group of nine consisting mostly of Irish riders - Karl Donnelly (Ireland), David Peelo (Dublin-Sorrento), Colm Farrell (Meath), John Blackwell (Kerry), Eddie O'Donoghue (Wicklow), David O'Loughlin (Mayo) and Richard Cahill (Cork) with Bill Hart (UK Bentec) and Garry Dodd (Surrey).

Leaving Waterford, with 80 miles covered, groups were closing and joining up but the three leaders kept battling on although their advantage was down to 30 seconds over the second group with Kukk, Evans and 18 others only 1:55 behind and making rapid progress.

Three miles from New Ross, Fitzgerald left the second group with Slagter and got up to the three ahead. They had a lap of the town of almost a mile and a half to do and, inside the final mile, Fitzgerald sprinted ahead. He said he called to Power to come with him but after his hard efforts, Power was unable to react and Fitzgerald went on and won by six seconds with Hourigan ahead of Slagter and Rifflet. Power came in at nine seconds.

Hobby led the next group in at 18 seconds and Kukk's group, including Evans, were at 49 seconds.

For 23-year- old Fitzgerald from Clonmel this was his fourth Ras stage win. He took the last one in Swords in 1996 and a year ago won into Killorglin and again in Swords.

With just the Dublin city centre criterium tomorrow, it should all be resolved today. The stage of 93 miles goes through Enniscorthy, Gorey, Arklow and Rathdrum and then comes the first of the climbs, second-category Ballygannon Hill, followed at 70 miles by the first category Drumgoff. Then after the descent to Laragh, a section of the Tour de France route includes the Wicklow Gap followed by Slieve Corragh, five miles from the finish in Ballymore Eustace.