Jens Van Laer of Belgium won both stages of the Junior Tour yesterday and displaced Alain van Katwijk from Holland at the top of the leaderboard. While there were alterations to the placings behind van Katwijk after the morning 4.4 miles time trial at Kilkenny, the young Dutchman was second fastest and he increased his lead to 32 seconds over van Laer with Derek Finnegan (Telecom) clear third at 43 seconds.
However, on the afternoon 40 miles to Thurles van Laer was out on his own at the finish, by 44 seconds, so he took over the leader's yellow jersey for today's 76mile stage to Ballinasloe.
In the time trial on the Kilkenny-Callan road van Laer was fastest with nine minutes and 22 seconds with van Katwijk seven seconds slower. Mark Scanlon and David McQuaid of the Ireland team were third and fourth but Finnegan was seventh and retained third place overall although he went from 25 seconds to 43 seconds in arrears.
Stage 4A (4.4 miles time trial at Kilkenny) - 1, J van Laer (Belgium) 9 mins 22 secs; 2, A van Katwijk (Holland) 9:29; 3, M Scanlon (Ireland) 9:32; 4, D McQuaid (Ireland) 9:42; 5, O Nin (France) 9:44; 6, D Nally (Emerald) 9:44; 7, D Finnegan (Telecom) 9:47; 8, P Murdoch (Scotland) 9:47; 9, B Twohig (Ireland) 9:49; 10, M Lonie (Scotland) 9:52. STAGE 4B (40 miles from Kilkenny to Thurles) - 1, van Laer 1:53:11; 2, B Marien (Belgium) at 44 secs; 3, M Vaz (English East Midlands); 4, P Dunne (Emerald); 5, T Hogan (South East); 6, Y Barker (Wales); 7, Y Revol (France); 8, S Gaywood (Britain); 9, Nin; 10, R Rees (Wales) all same time.
Overall - 1, van Laer 8:35:52; 2, van Katwijk at 12 secs; 3, Finnegan 55; 4, Scanlon 57; 5, McQuaid 1:07; 6, Nally 1:09; 7, Twohig 1:14; 8, R Verspaandouk (Holland) 1:16; 9, N Switterbank (Britain) 1:25; 10, S Prendergast (Amev) 1:27. Points - 1, van Laer 33; 2, Marien 27; 3, Scanlon 25. Mountains - 1, Twohig 16; 2, Prendergast 7; 3, Scanlon 6. Teams - 1, Ireland 25:50:12; 2, Holland at 2:49; 3, Britain 5:19.
Former Irish champion and international rider Noel Teggart died yesterday. The Banbridge man won the national road race championship in 1967 and was second to Peter Doyle the following year. He represented Ireland in the Olympic road race in Munich.
