Just weeks after his UCI Continental unceremoniously collapsed, leaving him stranded for the season, Finn Crockett could be excused to withdrawing from the sport, even for a while, to lick his wounds. However, last year's bronze medal winner from the Commonwealth Games road race is clearly made of strong stuff.
And today the Spokes Racing Team man went up the road on stage 2 at Kerry Group Rás Mumhan to win the day and take the race lead. The 23-year-old - who won the epic Rutland-Melton CiCLE Classic (1.2) last season - will be hard to shift out of the yellow jersey over the next two days, though has named Dean Harvey (Cycling Ulster) as a rider he was especially impressed with today.
"It was a 90k breakaway pretty much," Crockett said of his effort out front today, when he, Harvey and Ewan Warren (Caldwell Cycles) went off in pursuit of lone leader Jenson Young (ROKit SRCT) after he attacked at the start of the cat 1 climb of Ballaghasheen Pass.
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"We almost got caught with about 40km to go, it came down to 20 seconds," said Crockett of the bunch that chased doggedly for a long time and as Young was dropped from the breakaway, leaving just three up front.
"I just kept on saying to the boys (Dean Harvey and Ewan Warren) 'keep on squeezing, you never know', especially with this race it's a little bit disorganised in the bunch. And I just set to keep squeezing and the gap kept going else," Crockett added.
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"Once we passed the finish line (in Sneem) for the first time it was something like 48 or 50 seconds and we managed to extend that out again going over the last climb - we had a tailwind up so we just kept the pressure on. I just said to the lads 'let's take this to the line, there's no point attacking now'.
"I definitely took a bit of ownership and put a bit more pressure on myself to do the work but major kudos to Harvey from Ulster he is one strong boy really impressive. He did a mega job today. I think you and went really deep Over The Climb but he also put in some good turns as well. So could kudos to them for staying away."
Crockett said he was especially pleased to win after the recent collapse of his team. It is a mark of just how precarious pro cycling can be that he was left without a place, overnight, at the start of the season, especially given his results.
"My team folded about three weeks ago, AT85 Pro Cycling, so it's nice to come back and just race and enjoy it and get a win as well," Crockett said at the finish in Sneem today. "You could see as I crossed the line I was pretty bloody happy with it. I'm really happy. We've got a few tough days to come tomorrow especially. There's definitely a couple of guys that I need to watch out for but I'm just enjoying it that's what it's all about."
Meanwhile, Jenson Young of UK team ROKit SRCT - who effectively created the early breakaway when he went clear with about 90km of racing remaining, at least come out of the stage with something to show for his efforts. He lost his place in the four-man breakaway - dropping back as it looked like the escape group may be caught - and eventually finished in the bunch, taking the climbers' jersey.
"I went away before the first cat 1 climb, just at the start of it really. It was a pretty hard climb and I had a decent gap over the top of it, and won that one," he explained of taking maximum on Ballaghasheen Pass.
"Then I saw (the three-man chase group) coming, so I kind of eased up just a little bit after the descent and I worked well with them and then I ended up 2nd over the second climb. I felt pretty good but I had a few stomach problems mid race. I'm not really sure what happened but it was a real shame because I felt like I had decent legs."
When he dropped back from the breakaway to the bunch the gap had come right down and it looked for a short period like the leaders may be caught.
"The gap was coming in and then it went by girls again, it was a bit of a weird one," said Young. "But obviously the other tree guys were really strong and they were working well together. I just went back to the bunch and I made sure I finished with them for the next few stages. I think the overall is a bit out of reach now to be fair. Obviously it would be nice to keep this (climbers' jersey) and there's a hilltop finish tomorrow and we'll go for that."
Richard Maes of All human-VeloRevolution said it was a hard fought stage, though he believed the bunch had let the breakaway off the hook by taking the final climb on the circuit in Sneem too slowly.
"It was a fast day, there was no let-up all day," he said. "I ran out of bottles at the top of Coomakesta Pass with about 40km to go and just didn't have a chance to go back to the cars. Ballaghasheen Pass was also very hard, it was very windy going into it. There was crosswinds - lined out and a lot of attacks going into it.
"My teammate, Mark Dowling, was off the front so that gave us a bit of ease to sit in for a while and then the descent was really hairy. We rode very hard coming into Sneem but on the last climb there on the circuit we rode it at a very easy tempo and that was handy enough. We expected to bring them back on the descent, but we didn't."
