THERE was another change of leadership in the FBD Milk Ras yesterday at Lisdoonvarna as Pelle Kil took over from his Dutch teammate Jeroen Slagter, giving him the yellow jersey as they set out for Tralee this morning.
Polish champion Gregorz Gwiazdowski won the 99 mile stage from Clifden. Kil was only sixth, 52 seconds behind, and only leads on points from Matthew Postle, of Wales.
Gethin Butler (England North East), is third at six seconds, with Andy Naylor (Stoke), Andy Roche (Kerry) and Ciaran Power, of the Ireland team, on the same time. Ireland's number one, Peter Daly, is next, 13 seconds down.
In contrast to Sunday, there was glorious sunshine yesterday as the stage through Connemara and around the edge of the Burren was fought out. Slagter was the biggest loser as he came in over three minutes down and dropped to 14th, a minute and 55 seconds behind Kil.
On the testing third category climb at Ballynalacken, four miles from the finish, Kil was left struggling as Gwiazdowski powered way from Kevin Dawson (Britain), Ray Eden (Yorkshire) and Bart Brentjens (Holland). Some 28 seconds elapsed from the time the Pole won to when Eden proved best in the sprint for second place.
Kil admitted afterwards that Gwiazdowski was too strong on the hill. Kil has been race leader in several stage races, including the Tour of Sweden, but has never managed to hold out to win.
He said he hoped it would be his turn this time, but added: "It is very difficult racing. With so many teams, it is hard to control everything and as we lost a man because of the crash, it will be even more difficult now."
The crash Kil referred to happened four miles from Clifden and although most of the 40 involved battled on despite losing a lot of time, Wiljan van Riel was one of four forced to abandon. That leaves 157 still going.
Denis O'Shea led a breakaway of 13 to take the prime at Oughterard. After they were caught, the Moycullen prime went to Scotland's John Mathieson.
Going into the rugged Co Clare terrain, a breakaway group formed at the front consisting of Gwiazdowski, Naylor, Dawson, Kil and Eden and at 75 miles they were joined by David Peelo (Dublin Hillebrand), Brian Kenneally (Meath), Ian Gilkes (Britain) and the Dutch Olympic mountain bike champion Bart Brentjens.
As the big pack behind split in the chase, Slagter was left in the section at the back, two minutes in arrears. When the nine leaders got to 50 seconds on a chasing group of 35, Brentjens suffered another of his daily punctures but Kil dropped back to assist him and they quickly rejoined.
On the Ballynalacken hill, Peelo, Kenneally, Kil, Gilkes and Naylor could not stay with Gwiazdowski, Brentjens, Eden and Dawson. Near the top, Gwiazdowski, who rides with the Paris ACBB team representing France, pulled away and on the fast run into Lisdoonvarna he increased his lead to the line.
While Bill Moore finished in the group with Slagter, the other members of the Ireland team fared much better. Les McKay was in the group with Power and Daly, 58 seconds behind the winner, with Tommy Evans another 25 seconds behind.
Daly was quite happy with the situation. "It's still very early, the real racing hasn't started yet. There will be big changes in Kerry and then that stage on Saturday, taking in Mount Leinster, will be very important."
