Since my last blog (almost a month now) I have ridden 3 races - doesn't seem like too much when I put it in words to be honest, but it certainly felt like a lot. The "Visit Nenagh Classic", John Drumm Cup and the Tour of Ulster, which is 4 stages in 3 days, and that was with the National team. I was meant to ride the Rutland-Melton International CiCLE Classic but due to some illness, that was short-lived (thankfully), I was unable to join my ASFRA-Flanders team mates at the start line.
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| Great photo courtesy of Karen M. Dunne. |
The past few weeks have been a little crazy for me. I have been racing on the local scene but haven't had much luck with punctures etc.. but mostly because of an "An Post Ras" offer that came my way. It took a lot of thought but I eventually decided not to ride it this year. It was a bit of a crazy thought considering it ends 9 days before my exams start - not a good idea!
Tour of Ulster - this year was my first year ever riding the Tour of Ulster so didn't really know what to expect, apart from some pain and suffering! The race has the reputation to be perfect preparation for the An Post Ras which usually starts a few weeks after, so all the top riders from Ireland and a few UK teams were present and trying to find some form from the race. I was racing as part of the Irish National Team alongside: Stephen Clancy, Ryan Mullen, Shaun Rigley and Daniel Stewart.
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| Getting ready to hit the roads of Dungannon... |
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| Pictured here is the team with our super-soigneur Austin Mooney and Manager Ryan Connor. |
Stage 1 was 142km in length on some very rolling roads. The race started pretty quick with lots of attacks in which I was following and trying to make that vital split as Ryan (Manager) had told us the break escaped after 1km last year, so nobody wanted to miss it! Everything was still together after about 20km and shortly after that the race split on a small steep climb where I was dead. Really. I was swinging, lucky to just hang in the peloton at this stage! I really don't know what happened I've literally never felt this bad before and these roads that were so heavy definitely didn't do me any favours - I was dizzy and was finding it difficult to breathe, so therefore couldn't get into any moves. (I found out Monday that I have had a chest infection) At this point my race was up in the air but after a few gels an a full bottle of Zipvit Energy I was somewhat functioning again, but a little too late - the move had been made. Thankfully my team-mate Ryan Mullen had made the break and was looking good for the u23 jersey.
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| Look down the middle, next to Armstrong! |
The break contained roughly 25 riders and there was another 50 or so in the group I was in - so with Ryan being up the road we had the excuse not to do too much riding, but all day long little groups were attacking us constantly and pinging off the front and actually making some ground. Hmmm... what to do? I just waited until 600-700m to go and attacked to come in 10 seconds or so ahead of "what was left" of the race to take 46th. Ryan got an excellent 12th place on the stage leaving him in the blue u23 jersey for tomorrows split-stage day.
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| Warming up before Stage 2 |
Stage 2 was the shortest road stage of the weekend at 110km and was reasonably flat. The only real climb came after 18.5km, which wasn't so bad. Eurocycles now had the yellow jersey with Adam Armstrong so the stage was well controlled by them and they brought back most of the attacks throughout the day - it was sure to be a sprint finish, well thats what we thought! Roughly 10km to go a small group of 10 snuck away and gained a minutes gap. The group contained some dangerous riders so Adam rode his ass off for the final kilometers - but unfortunately they weren't caught and he lost the yellow to Matt Higgins of Node4-Giordana.
The finish came a surprise to me as the sign reading "1km to go" was actually at about 300 metres to go before a blind corner so I ended up comfortably in the bunch in 31st. Stephen Clancy and Ryan Mullen placed highly in 12th and 13th respectively. A great day for the team, we kept hold of the u23 jersey and were active all day long but were just caught napping when the last break went but that racing eh...
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| Stevey and Ryan! |
On Saturday evening we had a short TT, basically straight down a main road, turned left onto a side road and back up the to a road parallel to the start, which was mostly uphill. The TT started on GC position so, apart from Ryan, we pretty much had a TTT (Team Time Trial for all you dummies). I placed a joint 23rd on the stage with Thomas Martin of Eurocycles @ 25 secs on the winner Matt Higgins of Node4 Giordana. Ryan put in a stormer and placed 4th on the stage, on a borrowed bike @ 5 secs. Bring on tomorrow!
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| Our fantastic support team - Ryan Connor (Manager) and Hugh, our mechanic. |
Stage 4. Hmmm, got a bit of "deja vu" when I pulled back the curtains Monday morning. It was reminiscent of Stage 4 of Ras Mumhan - polar-like conditions. 4 degrees and raining! A hard day at the office was in store for everybody. I usually go well in bad conditions though, not the most enjoyable but if it brings good legs its something I am not too disappointed in seeing.
We had to tackle 10 (or more or less 11) laps of a 12km-ish lumpy twisty circuit, so about 125km in total. Roughly 20km into the race a group of about 20 guys rolled off the front on twisty wet roads and this move looked as if it was gaining some ground. Ryan had been in the group so to make things a little easier to defend the u23 jersey I followed an attack from a rider from the Isle of Man and we rode well together to bridge the gap to the breakaway. When we rolled up behind the group, I started to realise what a good position we were now in - Many guys in the top 10 were here and a few k's later Adam Armstrong, Ryan Sherlock and Matt Higgins (Yellow) came up to our group. Things were looking good!
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| Dead... |
The rest of the race was just the case of getting round and not getting caught by the bigger groups behind. Although a lot of guys packed, or DNF (31 to be exact). In the final 10km there was a lot of looking around and attacking going on, so one rider managed to get away and gain a gap on us. We had the same finish as Stage 2 so I wasn't going to be caught out again. This time I kicked before the corner and opened a gap in which I could hold off the rest of the guys to take 14th place on the stage.
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| The "Lance" look... (Over the shoulder) |
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| Nearly. There. |
After all the stages I ended up 27th on GC, 5th u23, 4th A2 and we got 8th in the team classification - but mainly, Ryan held onto his u23 jersey which was our main goal. He also got into the top 10 with a 7th on GC. The mans a beast! All in all I am happy with how the weekend went for me considering I had a chest infection. I made a trip to the doctors the day after the race to find out I had to take antibiotics for the coming week, so considering that I did pretty ok. Adam Armstrong took the overall by 15 seconds to Ryan Sherlock after the 2 of them rode away impressively to finish nearly 5 minutes up on the chase group. What a weekend of racing it was!
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| Happy Ryan |
I would just like to thank Ryan Connor (Our Manager for the weekend), Austin Mooney (Carer/Mammy) and Hugh (our mechanic) for all the great support. Thanks for a really enjoyable weekend - Im sure all the lads will agree! Thanks to Paddy Doran and my team-mates for a great weekend, to the other competitors and all the race organisation.
I am now taking a break from racing until my exams in school are over. My next race should either be the "Stephen Roche GP" on the 20th of June or/and the National Championships which are the 24th of June. I will continue to train and after my exams I will be getting prepared to spend the rest of my season in Belgium.
Some more detailed reports can be found on some of the following websites:
Irish Cycling: http://www.irishcycling.com/publish/news/
Sticky Bottle: http://www.stickybottle.com/
Cycling Ulster: http://cyclingulster.com/
Tour of Ulster Website: http://www.tourofulster.com/
Stay Tuned!
