Cycling: NZers prominent in Ireland race

Shane Archbold. Photo / Getty Images

New Zealand cyclists Shane Archbold and Aaron Gate have claimed two jerseys in the Tour of Ireland which ended in the seaside town of Skerries near Dublin today.

Timaru's Archbold, a world track silver medallist, took out the sprinters' points competition while Aaron Gate, of Auckland, was the tour's best under-23 rider.

The New Zealand under-23 team contested the eight day tour as part of their European road campaign towards preparations for next year's Olympic track preparations.

"Last year we rode here and got one third placing on a stage," Archbold said.

"This time there's been a lot of good placings by the team. We've all ridden out of our skins to be honest.

"We've been on the podium pretty much every day and we had stage wins, seconds, fourths, jerseys most days."

Today's lumpy 133km stage from Kildare to Skerries produced a break that stayed clear for the first time on the tour with the peloton coming up just short to catch Ireland's Dave McCan, who won in front of a boisterous, partisan crowd.

Archbold benefited from an excellent leadout by Marlborough rider Cameron Karwowski to win the peloton sprint for second place.

The 22-year-old rider cleaned up the key sprint points today to claim the green jersey comfortably as his main challenger, Lithuania's Gediminas Bagdonas, focused on his lead for the tour yellow jersey.

Gate punctured 12km from the finish but recovered well on the final climb to finish near the front in the bunch sprint to ensure he took out the under-23 honours.

Archbold had risked his sprint title with a bold attack in yesterday's penultimate stage when he came up just short in his challenge for the overall tour lead.

"A lot of directors here thought I was pretty crazy to do what I did yesterday," he said.

"But I have never been in the position to win the yellow jersey in a UCI Tour race. For the first few kilometres I had good legs so I thought I would have a wee nudge.

"I felt great and got some good help and I was leader of the tour for nearly 100km. It didn't quite come off and I suffered for the last 20km but I thought it was worth a go. I had to have a go."

The team have a one day race next weekend before the International Thuringen Rundfahrt, considered among the top under-23 cycling tours of the year.

Leading results:

Stage eight, 133km Kildare to Skerries: Dave McCann (Ireland, Asia Giant Kenda) 2hr 58min 57sec 11 Shane Archbold (NZ) at 14 sec 2, Dean Winsor (Australia, Britain Rapha) same time, 3. Also New Zealanders: Cameron Karwowski st 30, Aaron Gate st 34, Myron Simpson st 45.

General classification: Gediminas Bagdonas (Lithuania, An Post Sean Kelly) 30:39.48 1, Anatoliy Pakhtusovukr (Ukraine, Lampre) at 32sec 2, Sheydyk Oleksandr (Ukraine, Lampre) at 1min 13sec 3. Also: Gate st 6, Archbold at 2:21 10, Karwowski at 29:02 31, Simpson at 36:39 38.

Under-23: Gate 30:41.19 1, Archbold at 50 2, Karwowski at 27:31 7, Simpson at 35:08 9.

Points: Archbold 70, Bagdonas 53 2, Erwan Brenterch (Germany) 48 3.