There was a great one-two-three for the Dutch team on stage three of the FBD Milk Ras yesterday over a roundabout 88 miles from Charleville to Killaloe with Harm Jansen leading Pelle Kil and Erik Dagelet up the hill to the finish in Main Street.

There were no changes to the top overall placings so Jon Clay of the British trade team, Linda McCartney, retains the leader's yellow jersey. Clay held on to his two seconds advantage over Brian Kenneally, riding for Wicklow, with Dermot Finnegan (Meath) third at 15 seconds. They were closely followed by Colby Pearce (USA/Europe), Erkki Putsep (Estonia) and the leader of the Ireland team, Eugene Moriarty. There were several discussions among Ras followers afterwards on when such a clean sweep was last accomplished but Shay O'Hanlon, who holds the Ras record of four wins, including three-in-a-row, said that the Czechoslovakians were so dominant in 1968 that they took the first six places on some days.

Bill Moore (Meath) held out high hopes of an Irish win as he broke away after Borrisoleigh with 16 miles to go, with Dagelet and one of the Egyptians, Sayad Masry. Jansen and Kil went in pursuit with other groups as the main pack split on the approach to the last two climbs.

Dagelet did not contribute to the pace-making as Moore led Masry over the third category Newtown hill but, near the top of the more severe climb at Portroe, Dagelet sprinted past Moore and Masry and quickly opened up a gap of 20 seconds.

Then Jansen and Kil went by Moore and Masry and joined their team-mate at the front. As they careered around the twists and turns to Killaloe a chasing quartet of David McCann (Armagh), Mark Lovatt (Cheshire), Paul Griffin (Carlow) and Simon Steiner (USA/Europe) joined Moore as Masry dropped back.

Up at the front, however, the trio from the Netherlands pressed on and safely negotiated the bridge and the sharp bends into Church Street and they came up to the finish with arms raised in salute a couple of lengths apart with Jensen first followed by Kil and Dagelet.

McCann was fourth with Lovatt, Griffin, Steiner and Moore next in line and the main group arrived at 59 seconds with Clay, Kenneally and Finnegan all on the same time as their nearest rivals.

Kil, the stage one winner at Waterford, is now in the lead in the green jersey points classification with 29 to 26 for Kenneally and Finnegan. Jeff Wright snatched the last point in sixth place on the Portroe climb to take a clear lead in the king of the mountains. The battle continues today with another 88 miles to Ballinrobe with third and second category climbs at 16 and 23 miles.

Although it is tight with only 25 seconds between the top six overall, the gaps then are huge. McCann is 12th at 4:41 with Richard Cahill (Wicklow) 17th at 5:05 and Moore 18th at 5:34. Paul Helion, Ian Chivers and Stephen O'Sullivan are from 20th at 5:53 to 22nd at 6:17. Of the other members of the Ireland team Paddy Moriarty is 56th, 13:57 in arrears, David O'Loughlin is 58th at 16:17 with Ray Clarke 65th at 18:40.