Boylan of Team Ireland in the decisive escape on Monday (Photo: www.blackumbrellaphotography.com)
By Caroline Martinez
Fresh from winning three titles at the National Track Championships earlier this month, Lydia Boylan says she is happy with her performance in the An Post Rás na mBan after the first four stages and is looking forward to trying to move up the overall standings.
The British-based rider, who is competing in Kerry as part of Team Ireland, made it into the decisive breakaway on the road to Kenmare on Monday.
With that ride following on from a strong time trial on stage two on Sunday's opening day of the 2012 race, she is now sitting second overall behind pink jersey Kamilla Vallin from Denmark.
Boylan took a few minutes out from her recovery last night to talk to stickybottle about her race so far.
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“I’m really enjoying this,” she said.
“My legs are feeling pretty good and we have the best team looking after us so my recovery is the best that it can be. Every day is a matter of being in the right position. “
Rás na mBan is her first ever stage race and she admits that her lack of road racing experience was at fault yesterday, Tuesday, when it came to the sprint finish at the end of the www.fixxcoffeehouse.ie Valentia Island stage.
“There was the three of us in the bunch sprint [Anne Dalton, Lauren Creamer and Boylan] .We were slightly less organised than before. It was really narrow roads coming up the last climb in Valentia. It really heated it up for the QOM points and the pace increased. All I could see was the pink jersey up ahead. So I was telling myself ‘get on it, get on it, get on it; I can't let it slip here’, and we all got back on.”
“I was trying to move up but because the course was challenging and after yesterday there was still a lot of people strong enough to hang off the back but not to do anything else, it made it really difficult to manoeuvre around the bunch on such small roads. We have three still in the top 10. It was a good day for us. The finish was a bit disorganised on my part; not great positioning for the sprint again but GC is slightly more important.”
With three riders still in the top 10, the race is still undecided for Team Ireland and they will be looking to impress again today, Wednesday, on the dreaded Queen stage. Boylan says she is really up for the challenge and is looking forward to seeing what she can do.
“My endurance is obviously there and I can climb well as I showed yesterday. (Today’s) stage will sort out everyone properly and we'll see who's left at the end. We'll give it a good go on the climbs and try to drop as many as possible to gain some time on them. If we can get a break with any of us in it, then try to get a good time gap and get one of us in the top GC position…..”
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