The Final Podium
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Ok so its ages since I’ve blogged, apologies!!!!
Picture the scene, it’s a mundane Friday working in the bike shop when I get a call from my team manager, essentially saying there’s a stage race in Ireland this wekkend, book flights. No more details. So after blagging the time off from the shop (thanks Scott and Kieran) I book my flights, have a brief chat with Phil Leigh (head of irish cycling performance ish) and I’m set to go! So Friday rolls round and I’m in Liverpool airport (thanks mom for the lift!), shoot the cat the flights delayed by an hour!! Finally I get to Cork airport and meet Seamus, my lift. After briefly being stopped by the Garda (police) for speeding I finally hit the hay at 12:30, not ideal but hey what could I do? And so to the race, after a brief trip round Clonmel I find the HQ of the Suir Valley 3 Day, here we go!! No going back now!!
Stage One: This stage consisted of 60 odd rolling miles in what felt like a wind tunnel!! It started fast, these irish guys love to attack and in numbers!! We soon hit a long bypass into a block headwind where after loads of attacking, some by me sensing the race could split, the race split!!! Ha!! A group of about 10s gone and im not there, craaaaaap! I put in a huge attack and get halfway across the gap before the headwind cracks me. All that goes through my head is ‘well that’s it, race over’. However after some hard riding back in the peloton it comes down to about 10seconds and I power across without getting out of the saddle, animal!!! So a group of 20ish has formed at the front as we hit the finishing circuit after the only kom of the day, where 6 guys go clear and I crack, dang! I sprint in for 7th a minute down.
Stage Two: A tough day with the races biggest climb, the pike, in it. Again the race started with loads of attacks and small groups going up the road with nothing sticking, I cruise over the first two kom’s in the bunch, practically whistling. So we hit the pike where Tim Kennaugh puts in a big attack and soars ahead, I follow and am making good headway, passing and dropping other riders in my path. With about 1k to the top the race leader (Dave McCann) and a few others come up to me, so I scrap onto the wheel and we go over the top in a group of about 20 with a small gap. The headwind descent meant it all came back together, again!! It wasn’t long before I followed a hard attack from McCann and joined the lead group of three, including kennaugh, forming a lead group of 8 guys. Late in the day McCann and Adam Armstrong broke free with the latter taking the stage, and I sprint in for 5th on the day, 7th on GC.
Stage 3: The less said about this crit the better!!! It rained, many crashed, I lost big time in treacherous conditions leaving me 12th on GC as Martyn Irvine powered clear to a fine solo win, chapeau.
Stage 4: Last day and I wake up hungry!! Weetabix soon solved that ha!! No no, seriously I desperately wanted to win and was going to do everything to ensure this happened so I could stand on the podium with the girls. Again lots of early attacks meant fast racing up the first kom before the isle of man boys lined it out to set it up for kennaugh and Andy Roche. The race soon split on a windy drag, and 16guys went clear with all the favorites there, and me. As we started the 4 finishing loops with a small climb each lap a few attacks came and went. Then with about 28km to go, POW!! I attacked over the top of the prime hill and got a gap. But the wind made it tough and I came back 3km later then POW!!! I went again on the flat section, but soon came back. Time to slope off to the back and rethink!! We get the bell, 10km to go, then as we hit a draggy climb POW!!! I attack over the top and this time I’m gone, head down here we go!!! A quick look back see’s two guys coming across including stage two winner, Armstrong. We work well together and pull out 25sec. Right im in the podium, but which step?? I attack at 1.5km to go and achieve nothing but a glorified lead out for the others, the result?? 3rd out of 3 in the sprint and 8th on classement. A good weekends racing that has given me confidence for the last two months racing now. A brilliant race, superbly organized, big thanks to Paul and Declan for orgainising it and all the people who helped me get there!!
Ciao x
