Rás Stage 3 update: Sokol sprints to stage win as Bevin retains Yellow Jersey
Austrian rider Jan Sokol outsprinted a breakaway group of eight to claim victory on stage three of An Post Rás on Tuesday. The Azerbaijan Synergy Baku rider marginally led coming in to the final stretch in Charleville town and powered home ahead of Riccardo Pichetta (Italy Team Idea) and Oliver Wood (Great Britain National Team) who finished in second and third place respectively. Irishman Damien Shaw (Cork City Aquablue) was right on Wood’s wheel crossing the line and took a superb fourth place, while stage one winner Robert Jon McCarthy (An Post Chain Reaction) finished in fifth position.
The 154 kilometre stage three route from Lisdoonvarna to Charleville featured relatively flat, big gear roads with only two category climbs potentially breaking up the peloton. Following a few unsuccessful attacks early on, a group of seven riders went clear approaching Ennis, 30 kilometres in to the race; Sokol, Wood, Pichetta, Pierrick Naud (Canadian National Team), David Wohrer (Austria Tirol Cycling), Andre Benoit (Germany Team Kuota) and Irishman Roger Aiken (Louth North).
Shaw and McCarthy gave chase, bridging a gap of 17 seconds to make it a lead group of nine. This group proved to be the decisive breakaway of the day, working together to assemble a lead of almost 3 minutes 25 seconds over the bunch which featured the yellow jersey leader Patrick Bevin (New Zealand National Team).
Aiken was in fine form, leading from the front and taking the two King of the Mountain and the Hot Spot primes. Back in the peloton, the New Zealand National Team and the Australia Subaru-Albion team worked tirelessly to close the gap and with only 10 kilometres to go, the break’s lead had dwindled to just 1 minute 15 seconds.
With only a few kilometres to go to the finish it was clear that the break would not be caught. Aiken attacked from the front twice but was reeled in on both occasions. As they turned the final corner into the town centre, Sokol found another gear and galloped to the finish line to take the victory.
Sokol was ecstatic to take the stage win after such a tight finish.
“With five kilometres to go, I thought that unless our group makes a big mistake that it would come down to a sprint and it did. In the final kilometre the Irish rider, Aiken, was very strong and attacked hard but I managed to chase him down and just got ahead of him in the last few hundred metres. I am very happy; it’s a great win for our team.”
Patrick Bevin finished in the main bunch, 16 seconds behind Sokol, which means he retains the yellow jersey heading in to stage four tomorrow. The New Zealander also claims the points classification and the King of the Mountains jerseys. Alex Peters (Britain Madison Genesis) and Sean Lacey (Cork City Aquablue) again sit top of the Under-23 and county rider classification respectively.