“Seán and Damien rode an absolute blinder” – Matthew Teggart’s Rás Diary

Matthew Teggart’s Rás Diary – Stage 3 Newport – Bundoran

I took my first professional win today, but it hasn’t fully sunk in yet. I still can’t believe it.

Back when I crashed at the U23 Liege, I thought my season was over. I was with Neil Martin, who was our Directeur Sporif that day, crying at the side of the road and to come back to this result, I can’t believe it. It’s the best result of my life, the best day of my life so far.

The roads were much narrower and twistier today and it was good for a breakaway. We knew if we could get clear, then we would be out of sight. In the first 20kms, groups were clipping off and Damien was up the road. Sean and I then rode really hard to get away. When we got up to the Damien’s group, the three of us looked at each other and knew we had to ride. We had a big tailwind and our gap grew to two and a half minutes.

However, not everyone was working well. Some of the guys with no team mates were sitting on and this allowed another eight riders to get across with some strong men there including Ian Bibby. This bigger group meant more riders were sitting on though. Kurt was telling us to keep riding through as if we started to mess around, we’d be brought back.

With about 50kms to go, Kurt came up and told us that we needed to start whittling the group down. We just put in attack after attack and the size of the group came right down. To be honest though, I did very little but Sean (McKenna) and Damien (Shaw) rode an absolute blinder. They just kept the pace really high.

Coming in towards the finish, the plan was for me to do as little as possible and save myself for the sprint. With 5kms to go though, I told Sean and Damien to have a go but they were brought back.

In the last kilometre, they got me in a really good position, about fourth wheel. I knew I had a big tailwind at the finish, so I knew I could go early. With about 300m to go, I jumped and got the gap. I have a good acceleration and knew that if I got a gap, I could hold it and take the line I wanted through the finish.

As we came to the finish line, I could see a wheel in the corner of my eye, but I knew I had it and I could throw my arms up.

My father has done neutral service for years on the Rás and he was behind us today and could see everything. It was very emotional when we met after the line and Kurt was very emotional also. We were just speechless. I was just trying to hold back the tears. It was just perfect the way we rode, the way we played it.

Unfortunately, Kurt wasn’t able to get any champagne to celebrate as the hotel didn’t have any but there’s a long way to go in the race, so maybe we’re better off.

It’s just surreal. Doing the radio and TV interviews and being up on the podium. I can’t believe it. It’s just a pretty weird experience.

The team are in a pretty good position now on GC and we’ll try and make up time on the leader. I’m pretty tired now, but I still reckon I could struggle to get to sleep tonight!