Fridays stage saw another resounding victory for Team Columbia’s Mark Cavendish, who made it 3 out of 3 but Saturday’s grueling stage put an end to his dominance. The Galway stage saw early breakaway chased down by the Manx riders team who kept a tight reign over the peloton, before setting up Cavendish who maintained his lead over Garmin-Chipotle’s Julian Dean.

Stage 4 took the riders too Dingle and some tough climbing saw sprinter Cavendish relinquish his jersey to Pinarello CandiTv rider Russell Downing. He had started the day in eighth place leap-frogged not only Cavendish but also second placed rider Julian Dean to take the win and the yellow leaders jersey.  Garmin-Chipotle had done most of the work on the stage with David Millar pushing hard to gap Cavendish when they saw him struggling with 45kms to go.  Dean remains in 2nd with only Sundays stage left into Cork and the dreaded 4 laps of a city course which includes Patrick’s Hill.  In last years race, the hill proved to steep for some of the team cars so expect fireworks when the riders light up the circuit.

General classification after stage 4

1 Russel Downing (GBr) Pinarello Racing Team                                         18.14.54
2 Julian Dean (NZl) Team Garmin-Chipotle p/b H30                                         0.02
3 Matthew Wilson (Aus) Team Type 1                                                       0.11
4 Gonzalo Rabuñal Ríos (Spa) Xacobeo Galicia                                             0.12
5 Kurt Hovelijnck (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen                                              0.13
6 Daniel Lloyd (GBr) An Post - M. Donnelly - Grant Thornton - Sean Kelly Team            0.15
7 Simon Clarke (Aus) Southaustralia.com - AIS
8 Nikolas Maes (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen                                                 0.18
9 Valery Kobzarenko (Ukr) Team Type 1
10 Michael Barry (Can) Team Columbia                                                         

24 Mark Cassidy (Irl) An Post - M. Donnelly - Grant Thornton - Sean Kelly Team           2.22

28 Roger Aiken (Irl) Irish National Team                                                 4.28

36 Ciarán Power (Irl) Pezula Racing                                                      8.53

69 Paul Griffin (Irl) Irish National Team                                               23.52

78 Paidi O'Brien (Irl) An Post - M. Donnelly - Grant Thornton - Sean Kelly Team         27.21    

83 Andrew Roche (Irl) Pinarello Racing Team                                             29.21
84 Paul Healion (Irl) Irish National Team                                               29.48
85 Sean Lacey (Irl) Irish National Team                                                      

90 Martyn Irvine (Irl) Pezula Racing                                                    32.49

92 Stephen O'Sullivan (Irl) Irish National Team                                         41.27