Lance Armstrong, the seven-time Tour de France winner, pulled out of the three-day Tour of Ireland after the American complained of back problems, while Great Britain's Russell Downing triumphed.
Downing, a former national road race champion won the opening stage on Friday and finished second in Sunday's 168-kilometre third and final stage to Lars Petter Nordhaug, the Norwegian, on the summit of rain-drenched St Patrick's Hill to earn him first place in the overall general classification.
Nordhaug won the final stage in 4 hours and 10 seconds.
Downing, the CandiTV rider, added the 2009 Tour of Ireland title to his points victory in last year's race.
Meanwhile, Armstrong who abandoned, said: "It wasn't my day.
"My back was out today. It was just bad today. And when your back is out, everything is out. And on a circuit like this, with steep climbs, explosive, it wasn't going to happen."
Tour of Ireland details
Leading final positions after stage three; Bantry-Cork, 185km: 1 Lars Petter Nordhaug (No - Joker Bianchi) 4hrs 00min 10secs, 2 Russell Downing (GB - Candi TV) at same time, 3 Matti Breschel (Den - Saxo Bank) at 0.33, 4 Craig Lewis (US - Columbia-HTC) at same time, 5 Alexander Kolobnev (Rus - Saxo Bank) at same time, 6 Mathias Frank (Swi - BMC Racing) at same time, 7 Steven Kruijswijk (Hol - Rabobank Continental) at same time, 8 Marco Pinotti (Ita - Columbia-HTC) at same time, 9 Karsten Kroon (Hol - Saxo Bank) at same time, 10 Denys Kostyuk (Ukr - ISD-Neri) at same time, 11 Jakob Fuglsang (Den - Saxo Bank) at 0.42, 12 Kristian House (GB - Rapha Condor) at 0.51, 13 Jason McCartney (US - Saxo Bank) at same time, 14 Andrey Grivko (Ukr - ISD-Neri) at same time, 15 Florian Stalder (Swi - BMC Racing) at same time.
Selected others: 21 Malcolm Elliott (GB - Candi TV) 4hrs 01min 17secs, 22 Dale Appleby (GB - Candi TV) at same time, 26 Robert Partridge (GB - Halfords) at 2:46, 27 Ian Wilkinson (GB - Halfords) at same time, 28 Roger Hammond (GB - Cervelo) at same time, 32 Peter Williams (GB - Candi TV) at 5:38, 40 Mark McNally (GB - Halfords) at 8:23, 43 Chris Newton (GB - Rapha Condor) at 10:06
Did not finish: Mark Cavendish (GB - Columbia-HTC), Jeremy Hunt (GB - Cervelo), Daniel Lloyd (GB - Cervelo), Tom Southam (GB - Rapha Condor), S Richardson (GB - Rapha Condor), Dean Downing (GB - Rapha Condor), Graham Briggs (GB -Candi TV), James Sampson (GB - Candi TV), Rob Hayles (GB - Halfords), Andrew Tennant (GB - Halfords).
General classification after stage three: 1 Russell Downing 14hrs 18mins 03secs, 2 Lars Nordhaug at 0.23, 3 Matti Breschel at 0.43, 4 Alexander Kolobnev at 0.45, 5 Marco Pinotti at 0.49, 6 Mathias Frank at 1:03, 7 Craig Lewis at 1:05, 8 Steven Kruijswijk at 1:06, 9 Denys Kostyuk at same time, 10 Jakob Fuglsang at same time, 11 Karsten Kroon at same time, 12 Philip Deignan (Irl - Cervelo) at 1:08, 13 Andrey Grivko at 1:21, 14 Florian Stalder at 1:24, 15 Kristian House at 3:17.
Selected others: 21 Malcolm Elliott 14hrs 21mins 39secs, 26 Ian Wilkinson at 5:15, 28 Roger Hammond at same time, 29 Robert Partridge at same time, 35 Mark McNally at 10:52, 39 Chris Newton at 12:35, 42 Dale Appleby at 15:41, 44 Peter Williams at 20:12.
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