First Endurance rider Marco Pinotti (Team Colombia) outgunned the opposition for a hard-fought  overall win in the Tour of Ireland on Sunday, while teammate Frantisek Rabon provided the icing on the cake with a victory on the final stage.  Rabon’s victory was Columbia’s fourth stage out of a possible five -  following Mark Cavendish’s hat trick of wins on the first three days racing.

In a dramatic last day’s racing from Killarney to Cork, culminating in four laps of a 15 kilometre circuit including the ultra-hard Saint Patrick’s Hill, Rabon formed part of an early break whilst Pinotti went for the overall from a chasing group.  After wearing down the other riders in the break, Rabon moved clear with three kilometres to go for a solo win, whilst Pinotti attacked from a nine-man group behind to take the overall.

“I had to play a very strategic game.” a delighted Pinotti said.  “As soon as [team-mate] Michael Barry was caught I went. By attacking on the flat I could open up a bigger advantage than if I had done so on the climbs.  I’d planned to come good in this last part of the season, but you never know if it will actually happen.  This is the best year of my career by far, I’ve finished third in Romandie before, but this is the first stage race of my career.” “Cycling is changing, and that’s meant I have more opportunities to win.  I just wish I had been in this team when I was a younger rider - they’re really good for me. Still, better late than never.  My next big target will be the World Championships time trial in Varese, I’m current national time trial champion in Italy and I will go all out to get a great result there too.

 ”I was really pleased to be able to get this win, I went away in the break but then I wanted to be sure my team-mates didn’t need my help, either.” Rabon said.  ”But when I heard that Marco had attacked and had got 40 seconds on the main group, I thought he would be all right because he’s one of the best time trialists in the world.  It was not easy doing what I had to do, each time I went up Saint Patrick’s I felt different. The first time I was going great, the next time I felt terrible, it wasn’t at all clear what was going to happen from one lap to the next. But then I just went for it, and it worked out fine.  I was really pleased because we’d done a lot of work for Mark in the first three stages, and I’d been feeling tired.  But today’s stage was 140 kilometres long, not 200 kilometres, a distance I could do, so it all worked out perfectly.”