Hat-trick for Cav in Ireland

The Manx Express does it yet again!

Mark Cavendish has scored a hat-trick of wins at the Tour of Ireland.

It's perhaps the best of his three victories in the tour so far as today's 203km Ballinrobe to Galway stage contained two category two climbs.

The final few kilometres followed a similar pattern to those of the first two stages with Cav's Columbia team once again reining in and swallowing up the breakaway riders and putting him in position for the bunch sprint for the line.

Victory means he hangs on to the yellow jersey for at least another day and will further extend his lead in the points and young rider classifications.

Tomorrow's fourth stage is shorter at 186km, covering Limerick to Dingle, but features two tough climbs; the category one Conor Pass and category two Mount Eagle.