The course looked great – two
relatively long road stages and one timetrial (short and sweet). My
first thank you to the race organization – thank you for giving us
stages of a decent length. 142km and 114km for the two road stages –
it is annoying seeing races advertised as 140k and then finding them
much much shorter on the day. You need long races to progress, to get
stronger, to be able to compete against the Pros when the Ras is
on... Watch out for the guys who rode this tough race in two weeks –
they'll be flying!
Stage 1 – 142km – lumpy
Aggressive peloton from the start –
it took a long time for the main break of the day to escape, six guys
forged ahead without me (how could they! :P), but I quickly followed
in a group of five creating a lead of eleven about 60 kilometers into
the race. For those interested – my normalized power for the first
1.5 hours was 345W.
Once the group of eleven came together,
for the next 50 kilometers the pace dropped dramatically. Everyone
worked (so there was no attacking/shedding of 'deadwood') and we made
good progress distancing the peloton – the overall and stage would
be between the eleven of us. With 35 kilometers remaining, the
fireworks resumed – after a lot of attacks and counter attacks, I
found myself off the front with DID Teammates Fiachra O Muire and
Timmy O'Regan – two guys on form lately with Fiachra having had a
great ride the week before in the National RR Champs – they would
be very tough opposition. We combined well until we hit five
kilometers to go – the teammates attacked me one after the other
hoping for me to crack, but honestly, as the kilometers ticked by I
felt better and better – I was enjoying this. Knowing that there
was a strong group of eight riders still chasing us I didn't want to
stall too much and somehow we did keep moving to the finish. More
attacks but with about 300 meters to go, I launched my own sprint and
just held off Fiachra with Timmy coming in a few seconds behind. Both
Timmy and Fiachra are strong sprinters in that situation and I was
very happy to hold the teammates off.
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| Edging out Fiachra on Stage 1 |
Stage 2 – 3.3km TT – hill/drag
Despite having a horrific TT Nationals
(every year or two I have a very very bad day – TT Nationals was
one of those days – my wattage for the TT was MUCH less than normal
training on the TT bike... I still finished fifth in Elite Men but it
unfortunately is a day I'll try to forget) I really enjoy TTs. Thanks
to my coach, I have a warmup that is perfect for me and this one went
to plan. I arrived down at the start on my Shiv for the mostly uphill
challenge, warmed up and ready to go. I pretty much nailed it –
4:34 later I was finished and won by 22 seconds. Like the day before
I had great legs.
Stage 3 – 114km – lumpy
Yellow jersey on my back, peloton
wanting to follow it, no teammates and a strong team with two guys
close to me on GC against me - I knew this was going to be a tough
one! Instantly, the attacks and counters went against me – I had
gone into it prepared to throw it away – I couldn't ride 114km
chasing everything. A dangerous move with Timmy (who was 33 seconds
back from me) got away. Another group got away too and with 45
kilometers traveled the peloton with me in it found itself 3:30 back.
Don't panic. There are other individuals in the race, other teams and
soon a small group of us started to ride on the front – guys would
come and go from it, but things kept going. We kept things steady –
and we started to eat into their advantage. I guess the guys knew
that if we could get things close I would do the rest and they would
still be in the running for a stage. As the kilometers ticked by,
minutes were been chopped off the groups lead and with 45 kilometers
to go, we caught onto what we thought was the lead group. As we
joined up with the 10 riders, I had a look around to find the danger
men were not there, another four up the road I was told. With the
race mostly together at this point, there was much less help given my
way (I remember all the guys who were riding with me – don't worry
about that!) so it was a yellow jersey followed by a peloton for much
of the rest of the race. A long solo timetrial at the end of a tough
race – I actually really enjoyed it. There were a few strong riders
up the road, but I could optimize my pacing – and I wasn't going to
start playing games... This would be interesting. As we got closer to
the finish, the lead groups advantage edged away – with 5
kilometers to go it was 1:08. Timmy had 33 seconds on me but he had
been riding a long time and the last few kilometers was on a drag –
I dug in and rode as hard as I could to the line pulling back all but
seven seconds – I had done enough to retain the yellow jersey (and
still get eleventh on the stage!).
It was a hard stage – but I was happy
that I had the strength and determination to finish it off. So many
times in cycling it is easy to give up, throw the race in – be
content with riding along in the peloton. But one of the big lessons
I have learned is never give up – I have won races this year were
at the midway point I was minutes behind a front group – anything
can happen – and if you have a few strong riders coming together
and being determined, almost any deficit can be pulled back.
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| Husband and wife claiming the wins - Photo Joe Duffy |
Thanks again to Lakeside Wheelers for
putting on an amazing weekend of stage racing – four concurrent races
on great courses with challenging distances. If we had more regular
stage races like this (long tough stages) before the AnPost Ras,
county riders would be so much better prepared to show the UCI Pro riders who is boss. Thanks.
Marshaling, food, prizes, everything –
top notch.
