Now targeting the county rider prizes, Ronan McLaughlin said he is not being as closely watched on the Rás compared to his An Post-Chainreaction days, though had poor preparation for the race. Seen here with the county rider prize after stage 1 into Roscommon on Sunday.
By Brian Canty
At the midway point in the Rás, Ronan McLaughlin is tied on time with Damien Shaw in the county rider classification. And having been first county man home on stage 1, the Donegal Inishowen Gateway McCafe rider was disappointed he could not take the lead yesterday.
The former An Post-Chainreaction man is riding for that jersey for the very first time in his career and went up the road yesterday in a bid to overtake Aquablue’s Shaw, and possibly compete for the stage win.
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“I was a bit disappointed not to get the county rider award or something out of the day today,” he said after the finish.
“I purposely didn’t go for the KOHs or the sprints, needlessly wasting energy. But I’m still level with Damien on the county rider prize and it’s a bit back to third so that’s a positive and I’m happy enough,” he said in reference to third placed Sean Lacey at 1:38.
“I felt strong today,” he continued.
“That last climb was very hard and I only had a 25 sprocket, but I broke my main race wheels the first day in a crash so I’m kind of limited with what I can do at the minute.”
He added Friday’s summit stage finish at Seskin Hill will present the same problem for him, but he would tackle that challenge when it comes.
McLaughlin believed the break should have stayed away to the finish yesterday.
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“It was a good break but I don’t think everyone rode fully, there were only three Kiwis riding on the front of the bunch and a 12-man break should have stayed away.
“There was one guy there whose manager told him not to ride. So I wasn’t surprised there wasn’t great cooperation after that.
“Everyone did a fair amount of work into a headwind though, for a large majority of it anyway. It’s nice to be in the break again,” he said, adding he is not being as closely watched in the race as he has been in previous editions when riding for An Post-Chainreaction.
His preparation had been less than ideal, with a combination of work and illness not giving him the smoothest of run-ins.
“My preparation has been non-existent,” he laughs.
“I did cyclocross in winter, I kept a lot of shape from that. Then I did Tour of the North at Easter and got sick for eight days. It was bad, I couldn’t eat or train.
“I did the Tour of Ulster and felt good on a couple of the stages. But I had another setback when I went to the Giro and stood around and did nothing and picked up a cold. I’m well rested anyway, you could say.”
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