Ryan Sherlock has been ill and says he is "following, rather than making" the racing on the Rás. But he is hopeful he can come good when the road goes up in the next couple of days (Photo: www.blackumbrellaphotography.com)
By Brian Canty
He’s been one of the country’s most consistent performers in the Rás in recent years, but Ryan Sherlock admits he faces an uncertain few days as he battles to rid himself of the illness that has pestered his Polygon Sweet Nice team for a number of weeks.
The Monaghan man just arrived back in Ireland the week before last following an extended period of racing in Asia. But en route to the Tour of Azerbaijan in early May, Sherlock picked up a cold that he – along with fellow Irishman and teammate Mark Dowling - has been struggling to shake off.
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Now with two 2013 Rás stages under his belt, he hopes he can improve as the race progresses and show the type of form that saw him finish just behind Adam Armstrong (Eurocycles) in the county rider classification last year.
“I'm doing OK, there are a whole bunch of riders on the same time between something like 15th and 60th all less than a minute down, so the winner can could from any of them,” he said.
Having finished in the bunch on Sunday and in the yellow jersey group today, 46 seconds down on stage winner Shane Archbold (An Post-Chainreaction), Sherlock said his legs were feeling OK considering his recent illness.
“I suppose I've been following rather than making the race. The legs feel OK but my energy levels just are not there. Obviously Wednesday (in Kerry) is going to be hard, there’s an early climb that could really split things up and then I think the following day will be tough too. So hopefully the energy levels will have come around a bit by then and we will see how it goes.”
The former MTB champion said a course of antibiotics and his illness had forced him off the bike for eight days just before the Rás, the longest break he has had from cycling since his honeymoon three years ago.
“I’ve still got a cough but I think it’s just a cold that I have now rather than a lung infection or extreme tiredness or whatever it was before hand,” he said.
“Last Tuesday’s league race in Mondello was basically the first time I pushed pedals hard in eight days and it was okay, but I’d usually never stay off the bike that long in the lead-up to the Rás. It was very annoying how I got sick in the first place.”
“I went from Indonesia to Singapore and I remember on the plane there was so much coughing going on; it was actually really winding me up, but we got to Singapore and had a few nights there, did the crit and that was all fine. Then on the flight from Singapore to Dubai and onto Baku (for the tour of Azerbaijan) my throat started to get really sore and I started to cough and began to get concerned.”
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“I went through Azerbaijan and eventually our complete team got the same thing; a bad cough and a sore throat; not really like a cold or a flu but it was pretty bad. And a bunch of other riders got the same thing so it must have been some contagious thing going around.”
“Then we came back to Ireland - I felt okay in Azerbaijan but I was sick on the second day, though that was more food poisoning I think. But as soon as that was over my body said, ‘okay now it’s time to deal with this’. I came home and I could barely move.”
“So I went to (Dr) Conor McGrane to get some bloods done. Mark (Dowling) was there as well and Conor said he could have gotten pneumonia if he didn’t get it fixed. For me, he said I was pretty bad but I went on a course of antibiotics and I’m feeling better now.”
Good enough to contend this week?
“I'm hoping I'll come around in the next day or two. All the work is done and I’ve been racing pretty well; it’s always a bit of a lottery. I’ve come into it having been sick, so maybe the GC is a thing I shouldn’t look at. But maybe the second half should see the legs come around and I can try and be in the moves and try to be up there in the end fighting for a stage, rather than playing it cagier minding GC.”
“It’s eight one-day races and after this I go to Indonesia for what’s probably going to be the hardest stage race I’ve ever done so those two things are clumped together. It’ll be an interesting few weeks that’s for sure.”
Dowling is far less optimistic, however, and before the race admitted he still felt “terrible” and “all the hopes I had of getting a stage have vanished”.
Another Polygon Sweet Nice man, Charlie Prendergast was active in some breakaways today until a series of punctures ruined his day and he lost nearly 25 minutes and slipped to 150th overall.
Sherlock is best placed of the Indonesian-backed UCI Continental team, effectively equal 17th at 48 seconds. Dowling and Stephen Halpin both came home in a group 4:09 down today and they are now 110th and 93rd overall respectively.
Halpin and Prendergast are hoping to go in some breakaways in the days ahead while Dowling and Sherlock are hoping their illness will allow them strike when the road goes up; though Dowling is not bullish.
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