Dervan in top form in French contest

Cycling News: Irish road race champion Siobhán Dervan placed an excellent eighth two days running in the 2.2 ranked Tour Féminin en Limousin in France.

At the end of 117.5 kilometres of racing around Auphelle on Saturday, the Lotto-Bellisol Ladiesteam rider sprinted in towards the front of a 48-woman group which finished in the same time as winner Ellen Van Dijk (Vrienden Van Het Platteland).

She then repeated the feat on yesterday's concluding stage, a 122.5-kilometre race from Dun Le Palestel to Naillat. The results are probably the best of her career to date.

Meanwhile, Sorrento CC rider Paul O'Donoghue rode very strongly to break the Irish end-to-end record for the 380- mile Mizen Head to Fair Head distance yesterday.

The previous record of 19 hours three minutes was set in 1993 by former international cyclist Joe Barr, but O'Donoghue went almost half an hour quicker to complete the gruelling solo time trial in 18 hours 37 minutes and eight seconds. It was his second attempt, having previously tried in June, 2005.

Elsewhere, Orwell/Dundrum Town Centre rider David McLoughlin covered an excellent 457 miles in Merseyside on Saturday to improve upon O'Donoghue's Irish 24-hour record. He averaged 19 miles per hour during the solo test.

Finally, Irish road race champion David McCann and Giant Asia team-mate Stephen Gallagher finished in the main bunch in yesterday's final stage of the Tour of Qinghai Lake in China.

Dutch rider Maarten Tjallingii (Skil-Shimano) won the race overall.

McCann was 14 minutes and 52 seconds down in 21st place, earning 20 world ranking points for his stage win in the 2.HC ranked event, while Gallagher was 86th.