Crystal clear win for Downing in Waterford

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Twelve months and one day ago Russell Downing took a stage win and the yellow jersey at the Tour of Ireland when he proved the strongest of a breakaway group. History repeated itself today when the Candi TV - Marshall's Pasta rider did precisely the same again, although this time Waterford rather than Dingle was the scene of his success.

At the end of over five hours of racing, Downing galloped home one second clear of seven other riders, with Alexander Kolobnev (Team Saxo Bank), his team-mate Matti Breschel and Ireland's Philip Deignan (Cervélo Test Team) netting second through to fourth.

Haimar Zubeldia (Astana), Marco Pinotti (Columbia-HTC), Frederik Wilman (Joker Bianchi) and Oleksandr Kvachuk (ISD) also finished in the same time, with Pinotti showing that he is in good form and intent on repeating his overall victory of 2008.

American rider Lance Armstrong was part of the larger 24-man group which surged clear of the peloton on the day's final climb, the second category ascent of Inistioge, and which was split in two by the attacks inside the final ten kilometres. He placed 23rd, his group conceding sixteen seconds to Downing.

Several other big names were present in this larger group, while Saxo Bank's promising young rider Jakob Fuglsang was stranded between the two. All remain in contention overall, although everyone behind Armstrong is at least two minutes and 12 seconds off Downing and can almost certainly kiss their general classification prospects goodbye.

As for the stage victor, he said that he choose his moment correctly and that enabled him to win as he did. "The guy from Joker [Wilman] came out of the corner in the lead," he explained. "When we were going down the bypass [on the other side of the river] there was a really strong headwind, so I knew that there would be a really fast tailwind for the finish.

"One of the Saxo Bank guys took the front so I sat second wheel and tried to look out to see how far the sprint was. His team made took the lead up and gave me a really good draft. The moment was there when I was really on top of the gear and I nearly thought it was a little early, but I went for it. It was a good sprint and it was nice to get it."

Breschel has also won a stage in the past and would normally be counted on in the gallop, but he said that he was a bit fatigued after bridging across to the move. "That took a lot out of my legs," he said. "I was surprised by Russell at the finish. I didn't know who he was, but all of my team-mates told me that he was fast. I did my own race today, saving energy and seeing how far I could get."

Activity from the gun

Several hours earlier in the day 109 riders lined out in Powerscourt for the start of the first stage. A minute's solemn silence was held for Paul Healion, the rider who was killed in a car crash last Sunday, and who was due to participate with the Irish national team.

Shortly after 10am the riders lined out and, after a short loop around the nearly village of Enniskerry, the peloton moved towards the day's first climb of the Lower Sugar Loaf. Last year's KOM winner Matt Wilson (Team Type 1) was first to the top, beating Craig Lewis (Columbia-HTC) and others, then 2008 stage victor Frantisek Rabon (Columbia-HTC) and British national champ Kristian House (Rapha Condor Cycling Team) won An Post bonus sprints in Roundwood and Rathdrum.

While there were countless breakaway attempts, including a big but short-lived move by 24 riders before the bonus sprint in Rathdrum, the first move of significance was a solo effort by Jay Thomson (MTN Cycling) which came approximately an hour and a half after the start. He quickly built a maximum lead of over six minutes, and took both the top mountains points on the first category Mount Leinster after 108.8km and the An Post bonus sprint in Borris with 73km remaining.

Thomson also scooped top mountains points at the Cat 3 Coopanagh climb, where he was three minutes ahead, and continued to plug on alone. Team Ireland's 19 year old Philip Lavery attacked soon after and bridged across to him on the day's final climb, the second category Inistioge, pushing on ahead alone. He was caught however, and dropped by a group of 24 which included almost all of the pre-race favourites.

This group worked well together to build a lead of over two minutes, but then co-operation broke down when the attacks started. The decisive break, which included Pinotti, Fuglsang, Kolobnev, Deignan , Kvuachuck, Downing and Wilman clipped away with four kilometre remaining; Breschel and Zebeldia then joined across before the final sprint, which was won by Downing:

Deignan was happy with his performance, but admitted he did too much on the run in toward the finish on Waterford's crowd-thronged Quays. "I was in the original group of 24 and then with ten kilometres remaining, attacks started to go on the main road," he said. "Groups kept on going and coming back; eventually a group of seven of us got away with about four kilometres go to."

He feels he got things wrong in the finale. "I think I was a bit too aggressive coming in towards the finish, so I didn't have the legs for the sprint."

Breschel also missed out on a possible win, but didn't sound too disappointed. "We have a lot of cards to play, we have a lot of guys in the breakaway. For sure we wanted to win the stage, but basically we are just trying to test ourselves before the Vuelta and hopefully try to take the jersey tomorrow or in Cork."

Twelve months ago Downing had the yellow jersey going into the tough Cork finale but lost out under the continued onslaught of a number of competitors, including the eventually winner Pinotti. This time round, he hopes for better than second overall. "We'll aim to defend and have the jersey heading onto that finishing circuit on Sunday," he said. "I've taken a stage win now, we'll just see how it works out."

Wilson is another who is planning on defending his new garment. He won the King of the Mountains last year and would like to do so again. "It wasn't preconceived to go for the jersey," he said. "I just happened to be on the front on the first climb and no-one really seemed to go for it, so I jumped and went for the top. I got a few points and decided to keep going, to keep plugging away and see what happens. I'll aim to defend this all the way to the finish now."

The race continues tomorrow with another 196 kilometre leg, this time from Clonmel to Killarney. It includes the category-two Musheramore plus the first category Curragh, but a bunch sprint cannot be ruled out. If so, Mark Cavendish (Columbia HTC) is clearly the one to watch.