Victory for O'Brien in Belgium

By Shane Stokes

As the Tour of Ireland draws closer, the country's only Continental team, the equipe named The Murphy and Gunn/Newlyn Group/M. Donnelly Sean Kelly, has had its morale boosted through a win by Paídi O'Brien on the fourth stage of the Ronde van Vlaams Brabant on Saturday.

The Irish rider went clear with team-mate Derek Burke in an 18 man breakaway group, and then put in a strong attack on the final climb to solo to victory.

The Kanturk rider crossed the line one second clear of the main bunch, which was led home by Krish Boeckmans (Wielerploeg CLC) ahead of Jurgen Roelandts (Davitamon Win for Life). He ended the day 10th overall, 54 seconds behind the overall leader Kurt Van Goidsenjoven (Royal Cureghem Sportief).

"It is a really important result for us," said Kurt Bogaerts, manager of the Irish registered, Belgium based team. "Paídi has been going very well and Derek did great work to help the move stay clear. The gap was never more than a minute and towards the end the peloton was closing in on the break. Paídi jumped away just before the peloton caught them and held on to take the victory."