By Shane Stokes
Had all gone to plan, Jamie Meehan would be holding the yellow jersey heading into Sunday’s big concluder at the Rás Tailteann. The Team Ireland rider has been hovering near the lead all week, finishing in the bunch on day one and then making the crucial break on Thursday’s race to Clifden.
He was just 11 seconds behind Odhrán Doogan (Cycling Ulster) starting Saturday’s fourth stage and then turned the screw on the category one climb of Wolftrap, with he and teammate Dean Harvey gapping Doogan there.
It was, he told stickbottle, what they had hoped for before the stage.
“The whole team done a superb job. The boys brought me and Dean up to the front, drilled it from the bottom, and that allowed us to do what we did,” he said at the finish in Mountrath.
“We had a plan to go on the climb. The two of us have been climbing quite well all week, so we stuck with the plan. We did what we were supposed to do. So we can be happy with that. And tomorrow’s another day.”
Things played out almost perfectly, save for one detail. The Isle of Man CC rider George Kimbal had started the stage fourth overall, five seconds ahead of Meehan, and was the one rider able to cling with them over the summit.
He told stickybottle that it hurt a lot to hold them, but he managed to do so.
“He stuck with us. He didn’t help us too much on the steep bits, but he was quite strong in the flat,” Meehan said. “He was obviously going quite well to get over the climb with us. So yeah, he’s going well.”
Sunday’s stage is far flatter, removing a possible advantage that Meehan would otherwise have hoped for.
Final day changes are rare but not unheard of; Dillon Corkery swooped two years ago, for example, breaking clear and seizing the final yellow jersey from the British rider Conor McGoldrick.
What are the chances of Meehan overcoming his deficit? “This is the Rás. It is all to play for,” he said.
