Aidis Kruopis of An Post Chain Reaction emerged victorious from a bunch sprint finish to take the stage four win ahead of Italian Davide Vigano (Team IDEA) and Ian Bibby (NFTO) who finished in third. The leading break of eight riders were tightly bunched coming into the final corner with nothing to separate them. Coming out of the bend Kruopis took the initiative and stormed to the front in a daring move that paid off for the Lithuanian.
On paper the fourth stage would look relatively straightforward, with no categorised climbs along the 155km route from Bearna to Newport. However, this did not prove to be the case as gusting winds on wide open roads along the Wild Atlantic Way led to tactical racing which ended in an explosive sprint to the line.
An early break by Dominc Jelfs (Madison Genesis) and Eric Johnstone (Canada) set the tone for the day and they established a lead early on but were soon joined by Ian Bibby (NFTO) and Alessandro Pettiti (Team IDEA 2010 ASD). A chasing group of five riders decided not to allow the leaders get too far ahead and really pushed hard to bridge the gap. They were Clemens Fankhauser (Hrinkow Advarics Cycleangteam), Jeremy Durrin (Neon Velo Cycling Team), Christopher Reilly (Down Nth Graham Powerhouse Sport), Stephen Murray (Cork Strata3/Velorevolution RT) and David Watson (Down Nth Graham Powerhouse Sport). This nine man group formed the lead, up until the 41km mark where they merged with another thirteen riders to bring the lead group up to twenty two men.
The race ebbed and flowed at this point with the groups becoming fragmented with a lot of stop start racing, with nobody going clear. County rider Ronan McLaughlin (Cork Aquablue) made a number of attacks including a brave move accompanied by Jimmy Janssens , (Team 3M) which extended out to nearly two minutes at its peak. Coming into the final 50km the group dragged them back in. McLaughlin rode a terrific race today and was the first county rider across the finish.
As they race approached Westport and only 10km to go there was a lead group of eight riders, all of which were in with a chance to take the stage four win. This group included last year’s winner Clemens Fankhauser (Hrinkow Advarics) who rode superbly today but just ran out of steam in the final straight.
The excitement was building among the crowd in Newport as news filtered through of the impending sprint finish. The locals burst into sound as they caught a glimpse of the leaders coming around the final bend. At this stage it was all to play for but Aidis Kruopis really put his foot down to propel himself across the line and claim the stage win for An Post Chain Reaction Team.
Kroupis expressed his team’s happiness at the end of the race:
“We had a plan today and everything went really well. We got the stage victory and we are delighted, we move up in the GC and also claim the young rider’s jersey so it’s really good”
After today’s results Postlberger retains both the the Yellow and the Points Classification Jerseys, while Ryan Mullen (An Post) leapfrogs Jaap De Mann (Team 3M) to claim the U23 Jersey. Best County Rider (Ian Richardson) and King of the Mountains remain unchanged.
