By Mick Leonard
I suppose I should stop saying “never”, “tough”, “hard”, “insane” etc., as I’m turning into a broken record, but every day is the same again. Another crosswind stage today and it lived up to expectations after just 15k of 143. The bunch blew to pieces and it was time to ride your bike.
I had my first echelon of the Rás today as we tried to close a gap. If you’ve anything in the tank you need to ride through as its so important to make it to a group on the road. As they say ‘sitting on is contagious’. As we were chasing there was a split behind me as we tried to ride across to the group up the road. Me and two others had to put in big turns but we got there in the end, but the groups behind us did too. So perhaps we should have sat up and and kept riding echelons with them but it’s hard to know if you’re going to get across or not and you need to seize every opportunity.
There was some safety in the group but the hard work wasn’t done. More crosswinds and lineouts followed and going around lads who dropped wheels. According to my teammate, we went up the first KOH at 47kph in a crosswind. I can’t confirm myself as my eyes were about to pop out of my head.
It’s tough eating on and off the bike. As our coaches Eugene and Paddy who have helped us immensely over the last few months say, “stage races can be like an eating competition”. As a man who likes his grub I’m finding it tough to keep eating as my stomach is in knots and the majority of my calorie intake is from energy gels!
Some lads attack the grupetto with a few k to go which I don’t really understand but it’d be great to lead the bunch into your home town. My friend Patjoe from Covey Wheelers led the group into Westport yesterday. It must be some feeling leading the charge home.
As the DS Graham says, its like a Gorey that we have to do now, 3 days left. I was happy to finish my first Gorey two years ago and I’ll be relieved riding into Skerries.
Nearly there,
Mick
