Mark Cavendish of the Columbia team, continued his dream season by adding the first stage of the Tour of Ireland and yellow jersey to his four stage wins from the Tour de France.Racing got underway quickly when a four man breakaway got clear of the peloton early on. Martyn Irvine of Irish team Pezula racing, Matt Wilson of US Team Type 1, David George of MTN Enervade and Travis Meyer of SouthAustralia.com/SIS worked together to reach a stage lead of nearly 8 minutes at one point with the peloton seeming happy to let them ride up the road.

At the category 1 climb up Mount Leinster, Irvine was dropped as the other three powered over the mountain with Wilson collecting the points, a feat he repeated over the rest of the stage to claim the red jersey of the King of the Mountains for his efforts.

Kiwi Julain Dean, Garmin-Chipotle, finished 2nd on the stage.

Eventually the bunch began to warm up and it was Team Columbia who took the driving seat to bring back the leaders. Aided by Garmin-Chipotle and Joker-Bianchi the gap was reduced to under 4 minutes by the time they had 70 kms left to ride. The sprint began to wind up from 10 kms out as the leaders were caught and the jockeying for position began. Team Columbia have been particularly adept in setting up their man and so it was as Mark Cavendish thundered across the line with a size-able gap in sprinting terms from the chasing teams. New Zealand National Champion Julian Dean (Garmin-Chipotle) was second on the stage just behind Cavendish rounding out a good day for the American squad.

The pace of the chase was so strong that many riders were blown out the back of the peloton with riders finishing up to 27 minutes back on the leaders. However the Irish riders did fine with former National Champion Ciaran Power of Pezula crossing the line in 19th and current National Champion Daniel Martin, one of the pre-race favourites, in 24th but still very much in contention with only time bonuses seperating their time from Cavendish. Some of the Garmin-Chpotle team are recovering from a bout of food posioning which they suffered at the Tour of Portugal but they are expected to get better as the week progresses.

Today’s stage takes the riders from Thurles to Loughrea and is again expected to favour the sprinters.

RTE are showing 1 hour highlights programmes for the duration of the event as follows:

Stage 2 Thursday 28 August 23:45

Stage 3 Friday 29 August 23:20

Stage 4 Saturday 30 August 23:20

Stage 5 Sunday 31 August 23:00

Results & Overall after stage 1

1 Mark Cavendish (GBr) Team Columbia              5.00.20 (38.36 km/h)
2 Julian Dean (NZl) Team Garmin-Chipotle p/b H30
3 Alexander Kristoff (Nor) Joker - Bianchi
4 Boy Van Poppel (Ned) Rabobank Continental
5 Dean Downing (GBr) Rapha Condor - Recycling.co.uk
6 Kurt De Schrooder (Bel) An Post - M. Donnelly - Grant Thornton - Sean Kelly Team
7 Russel Downing (GBr) Pinarello Racing Team
8 Nikolas Maes (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen
9 Kurt Hovelijnck (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen
10 Zakkari Dempster (Aus) Southaustralia.com - AIS
11 Dale Appleby (GBr) Rapha Condor - Recycling.co.uk
12 Valery Kobzarenko (Ukr) Team Type 1
13 Juan Francisco Mourón Doldán (Spa) Xacobeo Galicia
14 Sven Renders (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen
15 Juan Van Heerden (RSA) Team MTN
16 Maximiliano Richeze Ariel (Arg) CSF Group Navigare
17 Massimo Graziato (Ita) Tinkoff Credit Systems
18 Malcolm Elliott (GBr) Pinarello Racing Team
19 Ciarán Power (Irl) Pezula Racing
20 Moises Aldape Chavez (Mex) Team Type 1
21 Cameron Jennings (Aus) Pezula Racing
22 Kristian House (GBr) Rapha Condor - Recycling.co.uk
23 Daniel Lloyd (GBr) An Post - M. Donnelly - Grant Thornton - Sean Kelly Team
24 Daniel Martin (Irl) Team Garmin-Chipotle p/b H30
25 Magnus Backstedt (Swe) Team Garmin-Chipotle p/b H30
26 Gonzalo Rabuñal Ríos (Spa) Xacobeo Galicia
27 Simon Clarke (Aus) Southaustralia.com - AIS
28 Adam Hansen (Aus) Team Columbia
29 Delio Fernández Cruz (Spa) Xacobeo Galicia
30 Frederick Nolf (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen
31 Ramon Sinkeldam (Ned) Rabobank Continental
32 Alexander Gottfried (Ger) Tinkoff Credit Systems
33 Thomas Murray (GBr) Pinarello Racing Team
34 Matthew Wilson (Aus) Team Type 1
35 Bart Aernouts (Bel) Rabobank Continental
36 Trent Lowe (Aus) Team Garmin-Chipotle p/b H30
37 Robert Partridge (GBr) Rapha Condor - Recycling.co.uk
38 Johan Coenen (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen
39 Michael Barry (Can) Team Columbia
40 Stephen Gallagher (Irl) An Post - M. Donnelly - Grant Thornton - Sean Kelly Team
41 Luca Mazzanti (Ita) Tinkoff Credit Systems
42 Serguei Klimov (Rus) Tinkoff Credit Systems
43 Johnny Walker (Aus) Southaustralia.com - AIS
44 Adam Semple (Aus) Southaustralia.com - AIS
45 Lars Petter Nordhaug (Nor) Joker - Bianchi
46 Francesco Tomei (Ita) CSF Group Navigare
47 Roger Aiken (Irl) Irish National Team
48 Marco Pinotti (Ita) Team Columbia
49 Matteo Priamo (Ita) CSF Group Navigare
50 David Millar (GBr) Team Garmin-Chipotle p/b H30

57 Mark Cassidy (Irl) An Post - M. Donnelly - Grant Thornton - Sean Kelly Team

68 David McCann (Irl) Irish National Team                   1.33
81 Paidi O'Brien (Irl) An Post - M. Donnelly - Grant Thornton - Sean Kelly Team         

87 Andrew Roche (Irl) Pinarello Racing Team
88 Paul Griffen (Irl) Irish National Team                                               

98 Miceal Concannon (Irl) Irish National Team               13.11
99 Sean Lacey (Irl) Irish National Team                                                 

101 Martyn Irvine (Irl) Pezula Racing
102 David O'Loughlin (Irl) Pezula Racing                                                

104 Paul Healion (Irl) Irish National Team                                              

107 Stephen O'Sullivan (Irl) Irish National Team            24.5