AFTER 136 miles in three stages on Saturday and yesterday, Eugene Murtagh of Finglas Ravens leads the three day race at Dunboyne by 12 seconds from Simon Kelly going into the final 74 miles today.
Approaching the finish of Saturday's opening 68 miles, Kelly went clear with Mick Walsh and Eamonn Finn, and Kelly was best in the sprint to the line. Another trio, Vincent Gleeson, Philip Lee and Brian Hammond, followed at eight seconds with the main group at a minute and 12 seconds. The rest of the 88 finishers from 91 starters were well strung out behind.
Walsh, who came home from America to ride the Ras, and finished 55th of the 83 survivors, was booked on a flight back yesterday, so he did not take any further part.
So, in the stage two time trial, over 3.5 miles yesterday morning, Murtagh, who was 66th in the Ras, was fastest and took over the lead.
Murtagh had 30 seconds to spare over his nearest rival, Ross Blayney, and it put him in the lead by 12 seconds from Kelly, with Blayney next at 15 seconds. Finn slipped to 11th overall at 29 seconds.
Anto Moran, also of Finglas Ravens, won stage three in the afternoon. At the end of the 64 miles, Moran led in John Doris, but the only change to the top overall positions was that a puncture proved costly for Blayney and he dropped out of the reckoning.
. Gianni Bugno won the 15th stage of the Giro d'Italia in Aosta yesterday, but the pink jersey of the race leader stayed with Russian Pavel Tonkov.
On a day when most of the peloton were recovering from Saturday's brutal assault on the French Alps, Bugno engineered a six man break with MG Technogym team mate Carlo Finco.
The group split with 32kms left of a relatively easy stage, which wound down from Briancon across the Franco Italian border to Aosta.
Bugno, hopelessly adrift in the overall standings and with nothing to lose, pressed home his advantage in the final kilometres to finish two minutes 54 seconds clear of a pack that couldn't be bothered to chase him.
Finco dutifully led his team leader into the final sprint, enabling Bugno to cross the line ahead of Francesco Casagrande and Russian Sergei Ouslamine.
I'm really happy," Bugno said. "Happy not just for me, but also for the team. Finco did a great job."
Bugno's morale looked to have been crushed by a dismal performance on the first real climb of the Tour, the seventh stage struggle up the 1,550 metres Monte Sirino, when he lost 11 minutes.
But despite languishing in 50th place, the Italian has achieved his only remaining objective of the Giro, a stage win.
