Ciaran Power of the Comeragh club in Waterford continued the home run of successes in the FBD Milk Ras when he emerged triumphant at the finish of the nine-day promotion in Dublin yesterday. It was a onetwo for the Ireland team as the 1996 winner Tommy Evans was second with Frenchman Stephane Rifflet third. Ireland were clearly best team.

After Friday's unsuccessful attempt to take over the lead, Power, who was 22 the week before the race started, showed remarkable powers of recovery to go with the decisive break again on Saturday and although he was only fifth again at the end of the 95 miles from New Ross through the mountains to Ballymore Eustace, his reward was the overall lead by 45 seconds from Evans.

It was a good start to his managerial career for new national team director Richie Beatty but he and some members of the team would need some Stephen Roche type lessons in cheerful communications. They found it difficult to cope with criticism when they were not doing well in the early days.

It was third time lucky in the Ras for Power. He was 20th in 1996 and finished fourth last year after holding the yellow jersey for a day. He would not rank among the stylish, spectacular winners. He looked to be floundering under pressure on Saturday but had it all under control in yesterday's Dublin finale. Afterwards he praised his team-mates for the way they kept the pace going in the early laps of the criterium up and down O'Connell Street and around Parnell Square, particularly Evans, but Power contributed to the action himself. He had two mishaps during the 784 miles - his front forks broke and he was involved in another minor crash but escaped unhurt.

Like other recent Ras winners, Power did not win a stage. His best placings were fifth three times - on the first stage he was relegated to fifth for switching after crossing the line in second place - but he still deserved to come out on top. Apart from a few gentle spins he said he will take it easy for a few days and see what is next on the international programme for the under-23 squad.

Power was in an early 21-man break on Saturday and when they were caught, Paul Griffin got away in a group of nine and was leader on the road for a short while but when other groups merged coming to Ballygannon Hill after Rathdrum (64 miles), Power was included in the 27 at the front. Other Ireland team men there were Karl Donnelly and Brian Kenneally and when they started to tackle the Glenmalure climb to Drumgoff, the three Irish green jerseys were to the fore.

Power set a steady tempo but when Wright injected some more pace at the front, only Jerome Desjardins (France), Paul Griffin (Carlow), Dermot Finnegan (Meath), Michael Smith riding for Mayo, Power and Donnelly could hold their places at the head of affairs.

Griffin, who was lying eighth overall, was very unlucky as he got a puncture after the descent, on the flat stretch before Laragh, and although he received a quick wheel change, he was never able to regain contact. A second puncture cost him his chance of even finishing in the next group.

Desjardins recovered from his chain coming off on the early slopes of Wicklow Gap to surge ahead and lead the way over the top followed by Wright, Finnegan, Power and Smith with Donnelly left behind.

Meanwhile Evans had got away from Sigvard Kukk (Estonia) in the yellow jersey and although his team-mate Power was up ahead and going for victory, the Banbridge man organised a chase to such effect that he reduced a deficit of over three minutes at 68 miles to just 56 seconds at the finish. He would have been even less popular if he had got back up to Power.

The final hill of the Ras, Slieve Corragh, with five miles to go, was where Wright launched his attack to win the stage and he kept going strongly to hold a six-seconds lead over Smith, who beat Desjardins for second place, Finnegan and Power.

Wayne Randle (Manchester), who had an unbeatable lead in the king of the mountains classification, led in a group of nine, including Evans, at 56 seconds but Kukk arrived at 3:08 and dropped to sixth at 2:45.

Yesterday, 133 of the original 152 starters took part in the final stage and it was another high speed swish for 25 one-mile laps. There was a threat when Evans went clear with Dutchman Wopke Veenstra and Jacques Fullard of South Africa but they were reeled in. Ruairi Mitchell (Carlow) won the first prime prize and he was later in a break with Power but that was also nullified and there were 114 in the bunch hurtling down O'Connell Street in the final sprint.

Micheal Fitzgerald, riding for the Dublin-Usher team, winner of Friday's stage into New Ross, was the obvious favourite as he was bidding for a hat-trick of final stages after winning at Swords last year and the year before. Near the line there seemed to no way through for Fitzgerald, as Veenstra and another Dutchman Herman Fledderus were out in front, but in the final few yards Fitzgerald's orange jersey flashed past on the outside and he just snatched it. It was a fitting climax after such a good week's racing.