CYCLING: Irish neo-professional Mark Scanlon ended the three-day Grand Prix Erik Breukink with a fine 18th place in the stage three time trial in Bladel, Holland yesterday. Shane Stokes reports.
The 22-year-old Sligoman covered the 18.1 kilometres in 25 minutes and one second, one minute slower than stage winner Bert Roesems, of the Palmans Collstrop team.
Former World Cup winner Erik Dekker rode impressively in his comeback race after a knee injury, placing third in the time trial and winning by two seconds overall. Scanlon finished 63rd overall, 19 minutes and 34 seconds in arrears, having finished 89th and 101st in the first two stages.
Meanwhile on the domestic front, Irish professional David O'Loughlin took his second win in as many weeks when he emerged best at the end of the Newbridge Credit Union GP.
The Ofoto Lombardi Sports rider, who is racing at home due to college commitments, may have been anticipating a slow start to the season because of a recent illness and the demands of third level education, yet once again he was too strong for the other riders.
The attacks began from the drop of the flag in Milltown, just outside Newbridge, when a 10- man break went clear on the Hill of Allen.
This was reeled in at the end of lap one, and a five-man group forged ahead six miles later, with O'Loughlin, Michael Concannon (Killorglin CC), Shane Baker (Usher IRC), Paddy Moriarty (Dublin Skip) and Kieran McMahon (Earl of Desmond) joining forces to draw gradually clear.
However, two laps from the end six other riders succeeded in bridging the gap, setting the stage for a decisive move by O'Loughlin and then Brian Ahern (Naas Fig Rolls CC) inside the final five miles.
Ahern succeeded in holding the Mayo rider once, but had no answer to a second attack which carried O'Loughlin home with a 20-second margin of victory.
Meanwhile, Kazakhstan's Alexandre Vinokourov (Telekom) recorded an emotional victory in the Paris-Nice cycle race yesterday, just four days after the death of compatriot Andrei Kivilev in Tuesday's stage.
The 29-year-old Vinokourov, winning for the second year in a row, came in clear of Spaniard Mikel Zarrabeitia with Italy's Davide Rebellin in third.
The Monaco-based victor, who had to overcome a slipped chain, added to a curriculum vitae that already included the 1999 Criterium du Dauphine and a silver medal at the Sydney Olympics.
In Sunday's 160 kilometre stage around Nice, Vinokourov made sure of outright victory when finishing in the first main pack of riders to cross the line, a group that included the main pretenders to race honours.
The seventh and final stage went to Spain's David Bernabeu, who tackled the day's last climb with a one minute 20 second cushion over Vinokourov and despite the peloton eating into his lead still to crossed the line a couple of seconds clear.
