Although Mark Scanlon had to settle for second place, eight seconds behind British and world junior track champion Bradley Wiggins on the six-mile time trial stage of the Credit Union Junior Tour at Sligo yesterday morning, he was 22 seconds faster than Yanto Barker of Britain so gained an overall lead by that margin over Barker. Wiggins was timed at 12 minutes and two seconds so he reduced his deficit to a minute and 37 seconds.
Scanlon and Barker had been locked together on time since Scanlon outsprinted his rival at the end of Sunday's first stage from Coleraine to Belfast but the young Sligoman rose to the occasion in great style on home terrain yesterday.
With no yellow skinsuit supplied by the organisers for the vital test against the watch Scanlon did not wear the ordinary yellow jersey but used the green skinsuit for his confrontation against the English pair and the outcome, particularly against Barker, was highly satisfactory.
The afternoon stage of 42 miles on to Ballina was won by Joachim Schoonacker (Belgium). He was at the head of a group of 10 and with Stephen Gallagher second across the line, he moved ahead of his team-mate Shane Prendergast into fourth place overall at 2:34. Scanlon led in the main pack at 2:03 and he sets out for Tuam today with that advantage of 22 seconds over Barker.
Stage 5a (six miles time trial at Sligo): 1, B Wiggins (Team Brite) 12:02; 2, M Scanlon (Dixons Ireland) 12:10; 3, Y Barker (Brit) 12:32; 4, M Kurits (Estonia) 12:40; 5, T Lavery (Leinster) 12:41; 6, R Raats (Belgium) 12:41. Overall: 1, Scanlon 11:02:58; 2, Barker at 22 secs; 3, Wiggins 1:36; 4, S Prendergast (Dixons Ire) 2:44; 5, Kurits 4:13; 6, S Gallagher (Dixons Ire) 4:37.
Stage 5b (Sligo to Ballina, 42 miles): 1, J Schoonacker (Belgium) 1:23:29; 2, Gallagher; 3, J Bann-Lavery (Ulster); 4, Dennis Lynch (North Cork) all same time; 5, E Raadom (Estonia) at 6 secs; 6, M McDonagh (Connacht) same time. Overall: 1, Scanlon 12:38:20; 2, Barker at 22 secs; 3, Wiggins 1:37; 4, Gallagher 2:34; 5, Prendergast 2:44; 6, Lavery 3:18. Points: 1, Scanlon 36; 2, Wiggins 32; 3, Barker 31. Mountains: 1, Kurits 10; 2, Scanlon 7; 3, McDonagh 6. Teams: 1, Dixons Ireland 38:00:48; 2, Britain at 2:51; 3, Belgium 11:33. First-year juniors: 1, Lavery; 2, Denis Lynch at 6 secs; 3, McDonagh 1:06.
The Waterford Club, Comeragh, promote the under-23 championship on Sunday and their star member Ciaran Power is returning from France to take part. Power, the FBD Milk Ras winner in May, was 13th in the European under-23 title race at Upsala in Sweden two weeks ago and must be hot favourite to win on Sunday. Starting at Kilmeadan at noon, it will be decided over four laps of 20 miles and the veterans championship is over three laps at 12.10.
Last weekend Power had a stage win in France, riding with his French team St Quentin, so he is obviously in good form and he will not have to contend with the holder Michael McNena and David O'Loughlin, who stay in France, or Aidan Duff, who is riding the Tour de l'Avenir next week with his Vendee U squad.
Tomorrow at Hillsborough the Tommy Given memorial race is the last of 10 races to count in the Callcard Classic League. In event number nine four weeks ago Brian Kenneally displaced Tommy Evans as leader of the competition - Kenneally now has 60 points to 46 for the Banbridge man so Evans could still snatch it back but recent form lines favour Kenneally. Paul Griffin is third in the league with 41 points followed by Kieran MacMahon on 40, Paddy Moriarty 32 and McNena 27.
The junior race at Hillsborough was also to wind up the junior league but with the Junior Tour reaching its climax there has been a change. The junior race goes ahead but will not count in the league, which may just be left as it is with Mark Scanlon ahead on 60 points followed by David Coughlan on 51, then David Kenneally 47, Brendan O'Brien 39 and Thomas Hogan 35.
The Leinster league race listed for tomorrow has been called off.
Mountain bike experts Robin Seymour, Craig Brady and Tarja Owens, who are based in England, at Alton, hope for further success on Sunday when they contest the races at Ludlow.
