DAVID McCANN of the Irish team won stage three of the Tour of Hokkaido in Japan, finishing the out on his own over two minutes clear.
The Belfastman broke away with two Japanese riders on the 180 kilometres from Kitami to Tomaun and, after leaving them on the two big climbs, he was two minutes and three seconds ahead of the main pack, which included the other four members of the Irish team.
On the first climb, after almost 100 kilometres, one of McCann's breakaway companions dropped back and then, with 25km to go, McCann attacked. He lead over the top and he was left on his own.
McCann improved in the overall rankings from 33rd to 21st but he is still over nine minutes in arrears. However, he leads in the king of the mountains classification and also in the hot spot sprints.
In the big bunch sprint for second place Luis de Koning of the Netherlands beat Takehiro Mizutani, with Paul Griffin well to the fore in 12th place.
Eric Wohlberg of Canada still leads overall by 24 seconds from Mizutani with another Canadian, Steve Rover, third at 32 seconds.
Richie McCauley is best placed of the Irish, 18th at 2:56, McCann is 21st at 9:16 followed by Paul Griffin, 26th at 11:24, Peter Daly 36th at 11:35 and Ian Chivers 52nd at 11:57.
