Stage 7 - May 25: Arklow - Baltinglass, 153 km     <Main Page>     <Previous Stage>     <Next Stage>

Second win for Newton

Barring accident, Ciarán Power looks set to win this year's FBD Milk Rás after a storming ride on the penultimate and toughest stage of the event. He may have lost a little time on Wednesday when the race hit the first category Healy Pass, but today there were no such cracks in his defence and he easily answered the challenges of his rivals.

The Team Ireland Stena Line rider finished just behind his closest-placed contender Chris Newton in an 8 man sprint to place second on the mountainous 95 mile stage to Baltinglass. That means Power goes into tomorrow's hour-long criterium in Dublin's Phoenix Park with a lead of 4 minutes and 3 seconds which, barring accident or serious misfortune, will see him take his first international victory since turning professional in 2000.

Prior to the stage, Power was in confident mood about his chances of matching Newton and the other leading riders over the stage's seven tough climbs, which began after 15 miles with the first category Devil's Glen. Keeping the bunch together until then was the priority and so his team-mates Tommy Evans, Tim Barry and Paul Griffin set a high tempo at the front. ,p> The riders duly hit the base of the tough climb en bloc and charged up towards its one-in-four summit where mountains leader Julian Winn and yesterday's stage victor Paul Manning grinded their way clear. Behind, Power was under no obvious pressure and crested the crowd-lined top in fifth place.

Motivated by thoughts of taking more KOM points (Winn) and nabbing a second stage victory (Manning), the leading duo hit the slopes of the first-category Luggala climb one minute ahead. Manning was clearly pedalling with more ease and before the summit of the climb he moved clear to begin a brave solo bid for success.

By the top of the second category Sally Gap the Great Britain rider was over a minute ahead of Winn and nearly two clear of Power's group, which was now greatly reduced. The yellow jersey appeared to be climbing well while Newton looked under pressure to follow wheels; clearly things were going to plan for the race leader.

There remained however 30 miles of undulating roads before the next major climb of Drumgoff. It was important for Power that his main rivals did not get clear before then, and this was ensured when a small regrouping saw his team-mates Tommy Evans, Tim Barry and Paul Griffin regain contact. Setting a high pace at the front, they reeled in Winn and kept the chasing group together, while an impressive Manning increased his advantage to three and a half minutes.

Feeling good, Power seized the initiative on Drumgoff and jumped clear with Newton and Poland Team Legia's Hubert Nowak on the steep, tree-lined lower slopes. Surrey League rider Gethin Butler and France VC La Pomme's Hichem Menad got across the gap soon afterwards, with the latter going to the front and setting a ferocious pace to the top.

After the tricky, high speed descent the five chasers were joined by a group of 16 but the pressure applied by Power and, particularly, Menad on the first category Wicklow Gap caused a permanent rupture. Newton, Nowak and John Tanner (Lancaster Compensation Group) held on over the top, two minutes and 45 seconds behind Manning, while Butler and Tanner's team-mate Mark Lovatt got back on shortly afterwards to make a seven man chasing group.

Swinging around into the wind, Manning was starting to tire and his commendable solo effort came to an end ten miles from the finish. Power was sitting on and was favourite to take the sprint for his first stage win of the 2002 FBD Milk Rás, but the Englishman had enough strength in the final mile to lead out Newton into the long finishing straight. Here the green-jersey holder kicked for home and sprinted impressively to deny the race leader.

"I thought I would get it when he led it out from so far back," said Power. "But he was very strong and got to the line before me. I wanted to get a stage but the overall is the most important thing...and that went very well."

"I felt very good today. The (Irish) lads worked really hard for me early on to keep things together and did a great job to get me to the bottom of Drumgoff. I felt good there so decided to attack - when you have the legs, that is sometimes the best form of defence and so I went for it. A few guys got up to me but that split things up behind."

Power has just tomorrow left and is feeling confident. "Anything can happen in cycling but with such a big lead things should be fine. I said at the start of the week that I wanted to enjoy the race and although I have the pressure of the jersey, that is really starting to happen."

Tomorrow's eighth and final stage: 1 hour criterium, Phoenix Park. Starts 3 pm.

1 Chris Newton (GBr) Great Britain 3.54.36 (39.08 km/h)
2 Ciaran Power (Irl) Team Ireland Stena Line
3 Mark Lovatt (GBr) Lancaster Compensation Group
4 Hubert Nowak (Pol) Poland Team Legia
5 John Tanner (GBr) Lancaster Compensation Group
6 Hichem Menad (Alg) France VC La Pomme
7 Gethin Butler (GBr) Surrey League 0.03
8 Paul Manning (GBr) Great Britain 0.06
9 Julian Winn (GBr) Wales 3.05
10 Grzegorz Zoledziowski (Pol) Poland Team Legia

General classification after stage 7

1 Ciaran Power (Irl) Team Ireland Stena Line 27.02.57
2 Chris Newton (GBr) Great Britain 4.03
3 Hubert Nowak (Pol) Poland Team Legia 4.33
4 Hichem Menad (Alg) France VC La Pomme 4.43
5 John Tanner (GBr) Lancaster Compensation Group 4.55
6 Mark Lovatt (GBr) Lancaster Compensation Group 5.12
7 Ari Hojgaard (Den) Denmark Distrikt Jylland-Fyn 7.42
8 Ian McLeod (Rsa) South Africa Team HSBC 8.17
9 Gethin Butler (GBr) Surrey League 12.19
10 Julian Winn (GBr) Wales 14.40