THREE IN A ROW FOR CAV IN IRELAND

Mark Cavendish Tour of Ireland 2008 stage 3

A mass pile up in the final hour of racing in the Tour of Ireland?s stage three saw Columbia?s Mark Cavendish injured - before going on to win his third consecutive stage.

The 23-year-old hit the deck on the rain-soaked descent of the final climb of the day, the Keeagh, hurting his right hip and scraping his side.

The Galway town of Ballinrobe played host to the start of the Tour of Ireland's longest stage this morning. At 201 kilometres, the testing stage three took in some of the most dramatic and rugged landscape seen so far in the race. From Ballinrobe the race looped round the west side of Lough Mask having taken in the category two Finney climb before heading north to the coast at Westport and then start to head south taking in three more categorised climbs before the seafront finish in Galway.

It was on the descent of this climb, with just 30kms to the finish, that saw a nasty crash involving race leader Cavendish and several other riders coming down. Cavendish's team mate Adam Hansen was one of them and had to retire from the race with shoulder and arm injuries.

TOUR OF IRELAND 2008: STAGE THREE RESULTS
1. Mark Cavendish (GB) Columbia 201km in 4h 57min 1sec

OVERALL CLASSIFICATION AFTER STAGE THREE
1. Mark Cavendish (GB) Columbia in 13h 54min 42secs

Tour of Ireland 2008

Dean Downing finds time for a cake

Tour of Ireland 2008

Kurt Hovelijink and Kieran Page on a break

Tour of Ireland 2008

Mark Cavendish and Dean Downing (r)

Tour of Ireland 2008

Adam Hansen crashes out of the race

Tour of Ireland 2008

Mark Cavendish celebrates taking his hat-trick of stage wins

Tour of Ireland 2008

Cav meets the press

Photos by Andy Jones

TOUR OF IRELAND

Stage two report: Cav does the double

Stage one report: Cavendish wins

Tour of Ireland stage one photo gallery

Tour of Ireland preview

Tour of Ireland start list

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