CYCLING RÁS:  DAVID McCANN yesterday became the first rider in this year's FBD Insurance Rás to successfully defend the yellow jersey, finishing in the main bunch at the end of the 141-kilometre stage to Skibereen

The Ireland rider was one of 80 who crossed the line one minute and 41 seconds behind the day's winner Simon Richardson, who in turn was approximately 20 seconds ahead of Mayo's David O'Loughlin (Ireland Pezula Racing). O'Loughlin was looking certain to fight it out for the stage win but punctured inside the final three kilometres.

He was ultimately given the same finishing time as Richardson thanks to UCI rules governing mechanical problems that close to the end of a stage, but lost out on the opportunity of taking his second Rás stage win.

He, Richardson, Patrick Kos (Netherlands) and Kit Gilham (Britain Kinesis) went clear before Farranfore, the first of five climbs on the stage. They opened up a lead of four minutes 45 seconds over the main bunch and showed great strength in fending off efforts to chase behind. While the gap did narrow towards the finish, Richardson and O'Loughlin had enough left in the tank to press on and to finish over a minute clear.

The Englishman said: "It was super hard because of the wind and the climbs themselves, because of the wind, were almost nullified. I knew with the time gaps we had, I was possibly looking at yellow, so I gave it everything. It was super unfortunate David punctured . . . it is not the best way to win a stage, off the back of someone's misfortune."

O'Loughlin got a spare bike but didn't have enough time to get back to the front. He said. "I was closing on him but I just did not have enough road at the end so I sort of gave up in the last few hundred metres."

Richardson had started the day well placed overall and so was clearly a concern to McCann. However, he finished 54 seconds off the yellow jersey, moving up to sixth overall but still needing more time. He's likely to try again but McCann is relatively confident. "In some ways it might suit me to have another guy from a different team close behind but not leading. I was not really that worried when the time went up because I was pretty confident we could bring it back when we needed to."

There is likely to be a big showdown tomorrow. He feels up to the task. "Those are the hills where I have won the Rás before - all around the Wicklow Mountains. I have won stages there and I have won the Shay Elliott, so this is my racing territory."

Before then, the riders will face a mainly flat 180km stage to Clonmel.