Cycling/Rás: One year ago the Irish challenge in the FBD Milk Rás unravelled just after the midpoint of the race, the strain of defending Tommy Evans's yellow jersey from day two proving too much for the team.
This year a different tack has been tried. For the first three days the Ireland - Thornton's Recycling riders bided their time. David O'Loughlin and David McCann took strong placings on the stages but left the race leadership to the Slovene professional Valter Bonca.
Yesterday the push towards yellow began in earnest, McCann's superb stage victory showing that, this time, their challenge is a real and legitimate one.
The Belfast man broke away from Bonca, the second-placed rider overall, Petter Renang, and O'Loughlin toward the end of the tough mountain stage, covering the eight kilometres to the finish in Cahirciveen alone.
McCann hit the line 26 seconds clear of stage three winner Dermot Nally and jumped up from 10th to fourth place in the overall standings.
With O'Loughlin third, their team-mate Denis Lynch fifth and the Galway team rider Nally now sixth, the home challenge is looking healthy at this midway point.
McCann's ride was particularly meritorious as he had earlier spent almost 100 kilometres of the stage in a 10-man breakaway group.
Including riders from several foreign teams, plus Lynch's brother Daniel and Tipperary's John O'Shea, the break opened up a four-minute lead on the main bunch and put Bonca and his team in real difficulty. And while each of the riders in this group was eventually reeled in by the Slovenia and Scandinavia-led peloton, McCann had enough in reserve to make his late charge.
O'Loughlin also impressed. After McCann's recapture he made his own effort to crack Bonca, bridging across to his team-mate Eugene Moriarty and Tim Barry (Tipperary Dan Morrissey) and causing pandemonium behind.
The resulting chase put the peloton under real pressure, and this then went to smithereens on the final three climbs of the marathon 181-kilometre stage.
O'Loughlin was eventually reeled in, but he too had enough left to get into that crucial break with Bonca, Renang and McCann on the cruelly steep Coomanaspig.
Once there, the two team-mates had a numerical advantage which they were able to fully exploit. O'Loughlin tried to go clear and, after he was brought back, McCann launched his stage-winning move.
"I'm delighted to get this win, especially after being up the road for so long earlier on," said McCann, now the leader of the points classification. "I had just enough time to recover and get ready for the last climbs. Once over the top myself and David started attacking, I got a gap and just went for it."
The Ireland - Thornton's Recycling squad took the best international team stage prize for the third day running and are also clear leaders in that particular general classification.
Today the Rás continues with a hilly 152-kilometre stage to Millstreet; more opportunity for the team to show its strength, exploit any weaknesses and continue the push for yellow.
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