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Borut get his timing just right

CYCLING/Tour of Ireland: Timing his surge to perfection, the Slovenian Borut Bozic thundered around the former Tour de France…

Shane Stokes In Ennis
Sat Aug 25 2007 - 01:00

CYCLING/Tour of Ireland:Timing his surge to perfection, the Slovenian Borut Bozic thundered around the former Tour de France green jersey winner Baden Cooke to win yesterday's third stage of the Tour of Ireland in Ennis. The LPR professional overhauled Cooke (Unibet.com) and held off a late charge by T-Mobile's Bernhard Eisel and Maximiliano Richeze (Ceramica Panaria Navigare).

A total of 89 riders fought it out for the honours, among them the Irish Murphy and Gunn/Newlyn Group/M Donnelly Sean Kelly squad. The team mixed it with the big guns with five kilometres to go. Although the effort probably came a kilometre too early, Mark Cassidy and Stephen Gallagher surged to the front and, with sprinter Paídí O'Brien in tow, ramped up the pace to set the Banteer man up for the sprint.

When the two peeled off O'Brien found himself on the front a little too early and was swamped by some of the other sprinters. But he fought his way through and took a solid 13th on the stage, giving him a boost for the last two days in the race.

"Paídí is a good sprinter so I told him that we'd get him up there with five kilometres to go," said Cassidy. "Things worked out well and we got to the front; we decided to give it everything to keep him up there as long as possible. We didn't have the full team up there and it's very hard to keep going at that pace for too long, but it was good to be up there with the big teams."

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It is also part of the building experience for the team, which is in its second year of existence.

Race leader Stijn Vandenbergh (Unibet.com) placed 46th in the sprint and was classified in the same time as the day's winner. He remains in yellow, some 20 seconds clear of Marcus Ljungqvist (CSC). T-Mobile's Aaron Olson is a further second back in third.

The day was marked by a long-distance breakaway. Moises Aldape Chavez (Ceramica Panaria Navigare), Ben Day (Navigators Insurance), Patrick McCarty (Team Slipstream), Zakkari Dempster (South Australia AIS), Dennis Van Winden (Rabobank) and Edvald Boasson Hagen (Team Maxbo Bianchi) attacked before the first bonus sprint at Tarbert. Hagen took the three bonus sprints while McCarty took the third-category climb of Cahir Mountain.

They led by over five minutes but chasing by the CSC, T-Mobile and Unibet teams inside the final two hours of racing saw this gap whittled away. They were eventually recaptured with eight kilometres left, setting things up for the big sprint and Bozic's victory.

The Tour continues today with the second-last stage, a tough 232.5 kilometres starting and finishing in Galway. The riders will face five categorised climbs and these hills plus the distance mean Vandenbergh could well find his yellow jersey under threat.

Stage Three: 1 Borut Bozic (Team LPR) 194 kilometres in 4 hours 21 mins 11 secs; 2 B Eisel (T-Mobile); 3 M Richeze (Ceramica Panaria Navigare); 4 B Cooke (Unibet.com); 5 W Sulzberger (SouthAustralia.com/ AIS); 6 M Breschel (Team CSC); 7 A Kristoff (Team Maxbo Bianchi); 8 M Maaskant (Rabobank); 9 S Lagutin (Navigators Insurance); 10 S Nys (Rabobank) all same time Selected others: 13 P O'Brien (Murphy and Gunn/Newlyn Group/M Donnelly Sean Kelly) same time; 29 M Irvine (Ireland); 50 P Griffin (Ireland); 51 D O'Loughlin (Ireland); 64 I Speirs (Murphy and Gunn/Newlyn Group/M. Donnelly Sean Kelly); 65 D McCann (Colavita Sutter Home); 73 S Gallagher (Murphy and Gunn/Newlyn Group/M Donnelly Sean Kelly); 74 P Deignan (Ireland); 78 D Burke (Murphy and Gunn/Newlyn Group/M Donnelly Sean Kelly); 79 M Cassidy (Murphy and Gunn/Newlyn Group/M Donnelly Sean Kelly); 82 B Kenneally (Ireland) all same time.

Primes: Tarbert (64.9 km): 1 Edvald Boasson Hagen (Team Maxbo Bianchi) 5 pts/3 secs; 2 Z Dempster (South Australia AIS) 3 pts/ 2 secs. Foynes (85.1 km): 1 Edvald Boasson Hagen (Team Maxbo Bianchi) 5 pts/3 secs; 2 B Day (Navigators Insurance) 3 pts/ 2 secs. Limerick (123.4 km): 1 Edvald Boasson Hagen (Team Maxbo Bianchi) 5 pts/3 secs; 2 D Van Winden (Rabobank) 3 pts/2 secs. Cahir Mountain: 1 Patrick McCarty (Team Slipstream) 6 pts; 2 Z Dempster (South Australia AIS) 4.

General classification: 1 Stijn Vandenbergh (Unibet.com) 12 hours 20 mins 8 secs; 2 M Ljungqvist (CSC) at 20 secs; 3 A Olson (T-Mobile team) at 21 secs; 4 W Sulzberger (SouthAustralia.com/AIS) at 24 secs; 5 G Rasch (Team Maxbo Bianchi) at 25 secs; 6 P Jacobs (Unibet.com) at 27 secs; 7 V Kobzarenko (Navigators Insurance) at 28 secs; 8 C Lewis (Team Slipstream) same time; 9 G Bak (Murphy and Gunn/Newlyn Group/M. Donnelly Sean Kelly) at 43 secs; 10 M. Breschel (Team CSC) at 13 mins 15 secs. Selected Irish: 23 D McCann at 13 mins 45 secs; 28 P Griffin; 29 D O'Loughlin; 34 M Cassidy; 37 P Deignan, all same time; 42 B Keneally at 14 :04; 54 P O'Brien at 39: 50.

Sprints competition: 1 Matti Breschel (CSC) 34 pts; 2 W Sulzberger (SouthAustralia.com/AIS) 30; 3 B Bozic (Team LPR) 29.

King of the Mountains: 1 Luis Pasamontes (Unibet.com) 30 pts; 2 R Beuchat (LPR) 26 pts; 3 M Ljungqvist (CSC) 23 pts.

Under 23: 1 Stijn Vandenbergh (Unibet.com) 12 hours 20 mins 8 secs; 2 W Sulzberger (SouthAustralia.com/AIS) at 24 secs; 3 P Jacobs (Unibet.com) at 27 secs.

Team: 1 Unibet.com, 37 hours 14 mins 33 secs; 2 Team CSC, at 13 mins 44 secs; 3 T-Mobile team, at 13 mins 48 secs.