A solo win by Welsh international Julian Winn in yesterday's 65-mile final stage could not dislodge Manchester's Neil Swithenbank from the overall leadership in the Newcastle Cheviot Tour of the Border four-day race in Northumberland.

Swithenbank, the national under-23 road race champion in 2000, ended with a 34-second winning margin over Rory Wyley, riding for a London Composite team.

The race ended with stage two winner Julian Gromett, from Scunthorpe, more than two minutes further back in third position.

Winn attacked on the climb of Middleton Bank, with 13 miles to go in yesterday's final leg, and opened up a 40-second lead which had come down to 14 seconds by the finish near Ponteland, where former national road champion Dave Cook outsprinted Gromett for third.

British riders Kevin Dawson, Mark Lovatt and John Tanner scored a clean sweep for the Compensation Group team when the Ras Mumhan, the four-day Tour of Munster stage race, ended at Killorglin, Ireland, yesterday.

Dawson and Lovatt defended first and second individual places in yesterday's 58-mile final leg as Tanner, who also won the points classification, moved up to third overall. For good measure, Lovatt won the King of the Mountains title.

The race was effectively won in two hard days in the mountains around the Ring of Kerry and Dingle Peninsula in the west of Ireland, and Dawson and his team-mates were content to finish in the main field yesterday as Ireland's Phil Cassidy, winner of the prologue time trial on Good Friday, scored a 47-second solo victory.

Dawson, who has won the British best all-rounder title against the clock six times in the last nine years, is just as happy, and at home in bunched racing, and over recent months he has been able to forge a strong alliance with Tanner and Lovatt in the highly-rated Compensation team.

Dawson went into yesterday's final stage at Killorglin with 26 seconds in hand over Lovatt, his Compensation Group RT teammate who won the previous week's Tour of the Reservoir at Edmundbyers.

"I felt good all weekend and had a good team around me,'' said Dawson after defending his 26sec lead.

"I've had it really easy here compared to what I'm used to. This has been a real team effort, and it couldn't have worked out much better.''