[2][3] Many ultimately unsuccessful breakaway attempts occurred in the stage's first hour, including defending mountains champion Matt Wilson topping the first category three climb in first position.

The first escapee to stay away for any amount of time was MTN's Jay Thomson, who was the first over Mount Leinster and Coppanagh, putting him second in the King of the Mountains standings at the end of the day (as Wilson took maximum points from the peloton on those climbs).

First to pass him by was Philip Lavery of the Irish National Team, and then came the rest of the 23-man group, one that included numerous big names such as Lance Armstrong, Stuart O'Grady, and defending Tour of Ireland champion Marco Pinotti.

After numerous attacks and counterattacks Russell Downing was the man to time his sprint just right, getting to the line a second ahead of seven other riders.

Van Winden was caught shortly after the descent from Curragh, but he managed to finish with the peloton, despite having been in a breakaway for 174 of the stage's 196 kilometers.

Team Columbia-HTC made it clear that their focus for Stage 3 would not be Cavendish, who freely admitted the circuit was probably too tough for him, but for defending Tour of Ireland champion Marco Pinotti, 11 seconds back of Downing.

Rather, the exact opposite seemed to take place, as riders little by little dropped off the pace of the leading group and either abandoned the race or finished many minutes behind the leaders.

The climbs were taken by riders who had not yet scored any significant points in that classification, so Matt Wilson was able to come away with his second consecutive King of the Mountains win.