Matthew Teggart’s Rás Diary – Stage 5 Buncrana to Dungloe
Today was a day of mixed emotions. Once you get the yellow jersey, you want to keep it, but I can’t really be disappointed. I felt down crossing the line, but as soon as I heard Regan won the stage, that really picked me up.
We started on big wide roads today for the first 40 or 50kms. There was a lot of wind and a lot of tired legs after five days and that caused some problems. It was the longest stage of the race and a lot of people were a bit afraid of the distance, but we’re used to racing that distance week in-week out.
We didn’t really have a plan to defend the lead, instead we planned on winning the stage. There were a few moves early on but nothing stuck. At one stage, I said to Damien and Sean to go hard and try and break up the race a bit. Two of the Australian boys then took it up after a couple of the climbs and reduced the front group to about 20.
Regan then drifted off the front with five others and it was just me and Damien in the group behind. Others in the group really started attacking us. Damien then got into another group and it looked like they were only about 20 seconds down on Regan’s lead group. We knew if Damien made it across, then he could take yellow which would suit us as the contenders for the overall win would be reduced even further.
However, we then realised that Damien’s group wasn’t catching up with the leaders and Sean and I were unsure what to do. Should we sit tight or try and make it across and help drive Damien’s group? We weren’t getting any information for a while and after a while it was too late to do anything.
For the last 50 kilometres or so, it was fairly easy which gave me a lot of time to think. It was a day of mixed emotions with some stress and anger but overall it was pretty special. I really enjoyed it and it was great with people coming up to me to chat. You notice a difference in yellow. When line-outs were starting, others will let you onto the wheel. Even with the crowd, you can hear people saying as you pass “there’s the yellow jersey.”
At one stage, I could hear one of the Banbridge lads behind me in the bunch asking, “with the yellow jersey, can you just order the bunch to slow down so we can stop for a p***?” I think that kind of shout in the Rás would give everyone the green light to attack.
I have to take losing the jersey on the chin and move on. Hopefully, the legs are good tomorrow. The stage tomorrow has Glengesh in the middle so it could be interesting. The climb and the lumpy roads are going to hurt a lot of people.
Our plan is to unleash hell. We’re going to attack and we’re looking for more stage wins.
Keep ‘er lit !