Rás Tailteann stage 2 - Sean O'Kane

Sean O Kane :

Stage 2 of the Ras was one that most riders feared. 192km of grippy Munstter roads with no shortage of climbing, including the Caha Pass & Windy Gap.

The year to boot had been a frustrating one so far, with constant sickness, punctures and bike issues curtailing any momentum. Despite this, I had gotten some decent results in some stages races & 1 day races with the highlight being 13th place in Ras Mumhan 1b, but I knew I had much more to give. With it being my first full year at C1 level, there was no space for off days or mistakes, everything was punished. This being even more true in the Ras

As with stage one, the fight for the break was chaotic, with people wanting to get up the road before Caha Pass and put pressure on the yellow jersey from the Isle of Man. Evan was particularly active trying to get away, but choosing the right move feels like a lottery with the amount of attacks that fly off the front in these races. For myself, I was trying to just stay well positioned with how fast the pace was. As I got closer to the front, I slipped in some moves but nothing was going. I had Kenmare on my stem notes as a place to be in position for, so I was near the front and followed an attack in front of me. Before I knew it, there was 10 of us rolling up and over and we had 30s on the peloton in no time.

The group was all hitters, I felt like I was in the big time now: Feeley, Byrne, Crowley, McLaughlin, Peden, Keane and a host of international riders. I was behind Feeley in the rotation getting negative draft so I skipped a turn here and there. Everyone was pulling except a certain Escape Collective Journalist sitting on the back, and we arrived at the Caha Pass with around a 1:40 gap to the peloton. I didn’t know what to expect up such a climb, but in the end we went up at a hard but manageable pace with the wind making things that bit harder.

At the top, the fog limited visibility alongside wet roads made for a sketchy descent, I was grateful to be in the breakaway. We took it cautiously, with nobody wanting to take risks, and eventually got into a short valley, where the cars were allowed up. Cooperation from here on out slowly got worse and worse. There were constant grippy drags that just sapped the legs, bit by bit, as fatigue began to set in. Eventually Crowley was told to sit up by the team car and that spelt the end for the cooperation. Feeley attacked with Peden and Byrne to fuga de la fuga, and were followed shortly by McLaughlin. I was on his wheel but there wasn;t much left in the legs and I couldnt match his jump across.

Minutes later the yellow jersey steamed past us with a teammate, he was flying, and we were not comfortable in the wheels. Shortly after, he attacked and nobody could go with him. This spelt the end of our chances as once the yellow jersey attacked across, the peloton was never going to let him get any sort of gap. Over the following 10k, we proceeded to attack each other in an effort to thin the group and get some cooperation but in the valley before Windy Gap we were caught by a motivated peloton.

With no legs, I went backwards up the Windy Gap, with the hairpins lining it out. I did a full gas effort on the descent to catch the group behind the peloton and got there to no avail, with us chasing for a while but never getting back on. In the end, it was a grupetto day for myself and Evan, who were on our last legs after a day in the break, and Luke who was recovering from this injuries.

Up front, Joe did his best to position our Jonas Vingegaard, Padraig. With great legs he was metres off of making the lead group but a moment of hesitation cost him. He finished in the main group, knowing the legs were there for the coming stages.

With 750g of carbohydratess consumed, it was a big day out and I hoped it would be enough for me to recover for a fast stage 3.