ToU - Stage 2,
This stage was 107km long with 3 categorised climbs, the first was after 17km, so the plan was to get up near the front after around 10km and stay there until the climb and drop through the group as we climbed, but I was comfortable on the climb and stayed at the head of the race in the top 10-15 until the 50km mark at this point, the race turned onto a main road on we had a tailwind, with the Eurocycles boy pushing it along a little at the front, it was handy enough, the other two climb were not really climbs and the day went by easy, when you have a day like that apparently it called checking into the "lounge", it suited me fine, a break went away with 25km to go and the yellow jersey changed hand to Connor Murphy (Eurocycles). Later on that day was the TT.
ToU - Stage 3,
A 3.2km time trial, down on GC from the first day all I wanted to do was roll around, but there was a cut off point of 30% of the winner time, as I had to push a little, a Node 4 pro won and took the jersey at a time of around 4:15 min I did a 5min TT, dinner with South Dublin boys and Wendy (Pintsize), back to hotel and bed.
ToU stage 4,
I woke up today feeling good despite the weather, and really wanted to see how I would get on, as the first day was a written off with the puncture and Sunday was a easy one, so up to the sign on change and rolled out down to a garage that sponsored the race for a few pictures, it was around 10km out and at this stage everyone was wet and cold, that would soon change, the race was on a circuit with 2 small climbs and a bit of a kick, there was 11 laps totalling 125Km, tactics came into play with the bigger teams here and attacks went from the first lap, then a another group went on the second with around 10/12 riders up the road in total, I was sitting in the bunch and felling good a couple of rider were going off the front, and with the body in good shape, one of the Node 4 English riders attacked I jumped on his wheel and we quickly got away from the bunch and caught two other riders they jumped on and up the road we went, then we hit the little kick the other two rider got dropped and I hung on, it was just the two of us left and we worked together and catch a group further up the road we were now the second group on the road we around 8 or so in it, I felt good and did a good bit of work in the group, towards the end a few other riders got out of the main bunch and came across to us, then in for the finish I didn't have the legs and came in 20th on the stage, I think we were sprinting for 14th anyway. Yesterday was tough and around 40 riders pulled out.
I finished 46th or 47th overall with only 55 riders finishing out of 110 starters. I really enjoy the weekend, and thanks to the Cucnulainn CC lads who I guessed rode with, these are the same lads I'll be doing the RAS with, also the organisation of the race was brilliant and very well marshalled, I even had a police motorbike follow me on my TT, pro or what!! I learned a lot for the higher standard of racing this weekend and I have a bit more confidence going into the RAS, 12 days and counting!!!
This stage was 107km long with 3 categorised climbs, the first was after 17km, so the plan was to get up near the front after around 10km and stay there until the climb and drop through the group as we climbed, but I was comfortable on the climb and stayed at the head of the race in the top 10-15 until the 50km mark at this point, the race turned onto a main road on we had a tailwind, with the Eurocycles boy pushing it along a little at the front, it was handy enough, the other two climb were not really climbs and the day went by easy, when you have a day like that apparently it called checking into the "lounge", it suited me fine, a break went away with 25km to go and the yellow jersey changed hand to Connor Murphy (Eurocycles). Later on that day was the TT.
ToU - Stage 3,
A 3.2km time trial, down on GC from the first day all I wanted to do was roll around, but there was a cut off point of 30% of the winner time, as I had to push a little, a Node 4 pro won and took the jersey at a time of around 4:15 min I did a 5min TT, dinner with South Dublin boys and Wendy (Pintsize), back to hotel and bed.
ToU stage 4,
I woke up today feeling good despite the weather, and really wanted to see how I would get on, as the first day was a written off with the puncture and Sunday was a easy one, so up to the sign on change and rolled out down to a garage that sponsored the race for a few pictures, it was around 10km out and at this stage everyone was wet and cold, that would soon change, the race was on a circuit with 2 small climbs and a bit of a kick, there was 11 laps totalling 125Km, tactics came into play with the bigger teams here and attacks went from the first lap, then a another group went on the second with around 10/12 riders up the road in total, I was sitting in the bunch and felling good a couple of rider were going off the front, and with the body in good shape, one of the Node 4 English riders attacked I jumped on his wheel and we quickly got away from the bunch and caught two other riders they jumped on and up the road we went, then we hit the little kick the other two rider got dropped and I hung on, it was just the two of us left and we worked together and catch a group further up the road we were now the second group on the road we around 8 or so in it, I felt good and did a good bit of work in the group, towards the end a few other riders got out of the main bunch and came across to us, then in for the finish I didn't have the legs and came in 20th on the stage, I think we were sprinting for 14th anyway. Yesterday was tough and around 40 riders pulled out.
I finished 46th or 47th overall with only 55 riders finishing out of 110 starters. I really enjoy the weekend, and thanks to the Cucnulainn CC lads who I guessed rode with, these are the same lads I'll be doing the RAS with, also the organisation of the race was brilliant and very well marshalled, I even had a police motorbike follow me on my TT, pro or what!! I learned a lot for the higher standard of racing this weekend and I have a bit more confidence going into the RAS, 12 days and counting!!!