geoirkcities thanks. bit of strange system

si1268,

The last stage win by an Irish man WAS 1992!­ Stephen Roche rode the 212km to La Bourboule in weather­ more suited to south atlantic sailing races then­ cycling. I was there at the finish and challenge you in­ your comment about a gift... No such thing, especially­ in the Tour!!

The SECOND to last stage winner was­ Martin Earley who won into Pau in the 1989 Tdf, if you­ had bothered to look it up and not spent time putting­ nonsense comments here!

kellyseamus43, the way I understand it, they take the­ times from three riders per stage rather than the total­ of the top three riders for each team in the general­ classification.

As was the case the other day, Caisse­ d'Epargne allowed a breakaway to go on and contest­ the stage, which included two Xacobeo–Galicia riders. ­ So even if they're way down in the GC, their times­ on that stage were significantly better than those­ Caisse d'Epargne riders who remain better off in­ the GC.

The stage in 92 was a parting gift from the peleton as­ I remember, so what was the last real stage won by an­ Irishman in a grand tour before then?

This is wonderful. It takes the Irish to turn this­ forum into one of the nearly all positive entries this­ whole year!

From one very proud Irish man to­ another... Well Done Philip!! What a ride, what a­ finish and what a fabulous achievement. You managed to­ wipe away 17 years of grand tour famine in true­ style!

Best of luck to Daniel, Philip and Nicolas next­ week... It is worth a few Euros in the bookies I­ think!?!?!

Good Man Phillip. Way to go . Happy days . Can anyone­ explain the overall team standings. Caisse­ D'Epargne have 3 riders in top 13 yet are third in­ team standings yet Xacobeo Galicia are first with­ Mosquera in 6th and next 2 riders 23rd and 24th. I­ thought they take the first three riders standings.­ Astana are second. Confused

Brilliant win!!!! he definately deserved it!! and being­ irish it makes it all the sweeter!!!
i hope he stays in­ the top ten now till the finish!!

Excellent. I grew up full of pride in Kelly and Roche­ so it's great to see the tradition is still going­ strong. Go neiri an bothar leat.

go on you little ripper.......nice 1 philip...good luck­ 4 next week.......you'll never beat the irish­ ..:)))

by the way only for roche was unlucky to suffer a lot­ with injuries he would have won another couple of tours­ he proved that when he won a stage in the tour in 92­ just before he retired and kelly he was a beast in the­ saddle

for a period in the eightys we were lucky for a such a­ small country to have two of the best in the world sean­ kelly was ranked number 1 in the world for a long time­ i dont think it will happen again i remember seeing­ them race in cork a few times and kelly in his prime­ was awesome he went patricks hill like a man on a motor­ bike no mean feat if you know it its a hard enough­ walking up

Irish cycling isn't doing bad at all. Deignan and­ Roche have been right up there this season, and Martin­ will be in future with the experience he is­ amassing.

Good win for Deignan. He really flipped the­ onus with 1km to go.

Gabriel, you do know that Irish cyclists have won all­ three grand tours, the World Championship road race,­ many classics and smaller stage races don't you?­ Okay, it's been a while but cycling success is­ nothing new to Ireland. I'm sure the intention was­ good but a good result for an Irish cyclist is nothing­ new, just long overdue. I'm very pleased to see­ Deignan pull off the victory and leap up the standings­ today. Absolutely brilliant stuff.

we will need to hit the Pulse in Letterkenny to­ celebrate your win

looks like Deignan's in great form. World­ Championships on next week, great to know that Roche­ and Deignan are at least capable of challenging at the­ top end in Switzerland. Best of luck!

i cant be lieve it at last,well done philip what a win­ he even outwitted kreuzeiger on the cobbles pretending­ to be shot.I was at la borboule in the clouds the last­ time an irish man won a major stage in a grand tour­ 1992 stephen roche...roll on the worlds!

Well done young Deignan,long time coming,lets hope its­ the tip of the iceberg!!! :-)

well done young Duignan,pride of donegal ,best wishes­ from your fellow pros in kilmacrennan,go on go on.

Gabriel: Vino retired from the race some tme ago.

Did anyone note that Vinkarov is no where to be found?­ At least, I didn't see his name with the finishers­ today? Did I miss him? Honestly, didn't know who­ Deignan was 'til today. W00T! for him! @markear1 -­ I agree...cycling truly is becoming international. From­ the States, I can tell you that it is great that we­ have so many really good cyclists and some young ones­ coming through the ranks...