Tour of Britain
Summary

STAGE SIX - Lavery is the best placed Irishman

Lavery is best placed Irishman in 25th place, and is impressing greatly during what is a trial with the An Post Grant Thornton M. Donnelly Sean Kelly team.

STAGE FIVE - Lavery remains best of the Irish overall

Lavery remains best of the Irish overall in 25th place. He crashed when his forks broke today, but rejoined the peloton and finished in this main bunch.

STAGE FOUR - Lavery impresses

Philip Lavery  impressed on today's fourth stage of the Tour of Britain, sniffing out the right moves and then riding well on tough terrain. Lavery made it into the select front group and eventually took a very solid 27th on the stage, moving to 25th overall.

STAGE THREE - Lavery rides solidly

National champion Matt Brammeier (An Post Grant Thornton M. Donnelly Sean Kelly) plus the young Irish riders Sean Downey (Ireland) and Philip Lavery (An Post) rode solidly, netting 38th, 39th and 43rd. They were all less than three minutes behind Albasini at the end of a very tough stage. Other Irish riders finished further back, including Daniel Martin (Garmin Slipstream), who had attacked very soon after the start.

STAGE TWO - Lavery 23rd in general classification

Stephen Gallagher was best of the Irish in 23rd, being part of the main bunch which came home over ten minutes back. Ronan McLaughlin and his An Post Grant Thornton M. Donnelly Sean Kelly team-mate Philip Lavery also finished in that group, placing 25th and 29th respectively, while the majority of the other Irish riders finished a further nine seconds behind. The peloton split on the drag up to the finish line, causing the time gap.

Lavery is best-placed of that dozen in the general classification. He is 23rd overall and continuing to ride very solidly. "I'm happy with how he is going," said team manager Kurt Bogaerts, who gave Lavery a trial with the team and would now like to keep him on the lineup next year. "He is riding strongly but it is also about his attitude; he wants to attack, be aggressive. That's a very good sign."

STAGE ONE - Lavery best of Irish riders

Best of the dozen was Philip Lavery, who is continuing to impress on his pro trial with the An Post Grant Thornton M. Donnelly Sean Kelly team. He finished 22nd, with Martyn Irvine first of the Irish National team across the line in 29th. He was unable to get into the 11 sprocket in the sprint, and said afterwards that he felt certain he would otherwise have been closer to the front.