Archbold pipped for stage four win at Ras Tour of Ireland

New Zealand cyclist Shane Archbold was pipped on the line for the stage four win of the Ras Tour of Ireland today.

Archbold is part of the BikeNZ endurance track squad who are competing on the roads in Europe in preparation for next year’s campaign towards the London Olympics.

The Timaru rider was edged on the line by yellow jersey holder Gediminas Bagdonas from Lithuania and had to settle for second place for the second time in the 142km stage to Castletownbere on the south western coast of Ireland.

Teammate Aaron Gate also fought his way into the 37-strong lead pack to contest the sprint and now moves up to fifth place on general classification, 1m31s behind leader Bagdonas. The Auckland rider maintains his advantage over teammate Archbold in the overall under-23 jersey.

Archbold is in eighth place on general classification, 2m17s behind the leader, and remains in second place in the race for the sprint jersey, four points behind Bagdonas. With the Lithuanian in yellow, Archbold will wear the sprint leader’s jersey tomorrow.

“It was a case of nearly but not quite today. The team did a great job to ensure we could get Shane and Aaron over the big category one climb in touch with the leaders,” said coach Stu MacDonald.

“Shane did come down on the decent but got back on and an initial splinter to a front group came back together with 8kms to go. Aaron sacrificed himself to lead-out for Shane and he looked very strong.

“We are having problems locating the approach signs and accordingly Shane went a bit too early and got pipped. He was gutted and the team were gutted because we feel we had done it right and that Shane is the best sprinter here.”

It proved an epic day on the Tour, run through some stunning scenic areas of Ireland although riders had to battle rain and cold temperatures throughout the stage.

Tomorrow’s fifth stage is 152kms with six climbs to the famous town of Blarney.

The eight-day race includes 185 riders from 12 international teams along with a host of British and Irish teams battling over 1247 kilometres with 28 categorised climbs.

Results:

Ras Tour of Ireland, Stage 4, 142km CastleIsland to Castletownbere: Gediminas Bagdonas (LTU, An Post Sean Kelly) 3:42:59, 1; Shane Archbold (NZL) same time, 2; Stuart Shaw (AUS, Dracpac) same time, 3. Also New Zealanders: Aaron Gate same time, 7; Cameron Karwowski at 10:38, 56; Marc Ryan at 11:35, 85; Myron Simpson at 11:35, 86.

General classification: Bagdonas 16:39:15, 1; Sheydyk Olek (Ukraine Lampre) at 1:16, 2; Nikolay Mihaylov (Bulgaria) same time, 3; Peter Williams (GBR) at 1:27, 4; Aaron Gate (NZL) at 1:31, 5.

Also: ShaneArchbold (NZL) at 2:17, 8.

Under 23: Gate 16:40:46, 1; Archbold at 46s, 2; S Downey (IRE) at 2:17, 3.

Points: Bagdonas 44 points, 1; Archbold 40, 2; Shaw 26, 3.