Patrick Bevin elebrates his stage four win in the An Post Ras tour of Ireland today. Photo / Sportsfile.
Commonwealth Games cyclist Patrick Bevin has claimed his second stage win to cement his place in the lead of the An Post Ras tour of Ireland today.
Bevin, part of the New Zealand team who are using the Tour to prepare for endurance track events at the Commonwealth Games, retained
his lead at the top of the general classification after outsprinting last year's winner Marcin Bialoblocki (Britain Velosure Giordana) and Peter Williams (France Bretagne Velotec) in the toughest stage into Cahirciveen.
Today's stage four was pinpointed by many as the toughest of this year's race. Not only was it the longest of the eight stages, at 183 kms, but it featured 10 categorised climbs. The daunting category one ascent of Coomanaspic looked certain to play a key role in the day's proceedings.
A breakaway group put two minutes into the peloton and brought a virtual change of the lead. But the New Zealand team, led by Bevin, were chipping away at the breakaway's lead and approaching the final climb at Coomanaspic the gap was down to 1 minute 15 seconds.
With 10kms to go the yellow jersey group had closed the gap to just 45 seconds and the catch came with 4kms remaining.
