As the race slips away from An Post-Chainreaction, they battle hard to assert themselves on a savage day when Sean Downey - leading - proves best of the men in green (Photo: Gary McIlroy)
The action came thick and fast when stickybottle.com joined Irish pro team An Post-Chainreaction in their team car on a savage stage 5 of the Rás from Cahirciveen to Clonakilty back in May.
The race is going away from the An Post-Chainreaction team but that doesn’t bother manager Kurt Bogaerts too much.
They’ve been in this position before. What really drives him mental is that they haven’t adhered to the pre-stage plan.
Kiwi star Shane Archbold, who had a dreadful crash on the opening day of this Rás into Roscommon, is rocking wildly as he tries to stay in touch with the main field which is now down to around 50 riders or so.
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Up ahead, An Post’s Sean Downey, Owain Doull and Robert-Jon McCarthy are all doing okay in what is left of the main peloton.
Another team man Jack Wilson is over a minute up the road in the breakaway.
Bogaerts falls silent.
He’s well aware their only chances of outright victory are Doull - now 7th overall at 2:07 - and Downey - 19th overall at 2:53. The break’s gap widens and Bogaerts’ frustration grows.
The team car is the nerve centre as the An Post manager barks at his charges to wrestle back control.
Most of the big players are in that lead group. But Wilson is the only An Post man and he’s almost 15 minutes down on this morning’s yellow jersey Patrick Bevin of the New Zealand national team.
A stage win is very unlikely. Overall victory is impossible.
“It’s over, if we don’t do something; fuck,” Bogaerts announces as he hammers the steering wheel in frustration.
The rain pours down and Archbold is on his limit on the cat 3 climb of Derryquinn.
We’re barely 50k into 169km stage 5 from Cahirciveen to Clonakilty and one of the team’s star riders is in trouble.
There’s the Tunnel Road cat 2 climb to come, the cat 3 Derrycreha and another cat 3 at Cousane. It’s going to be a long day for the Kiwi.
Bogaerts demands gloves from the back seat for Archbold.
Hans, the mechanic and soigneur, is sharp and lively.
Tough as nails, Archbold - who has since won a Commonwealth Games title on the track - is helped backed into action after a mishap.
The manager puts his hand back and is presented with neoprene; thick enough to handle lava. It’s that kind of biblical day on the Rás.
Bogaerts rolls down the window and exchanges a momentary glance with his man. Their eyes meet.
The man in charge behind the wheel of the team car needs to see the eyes for proof. But the drool on Archbold’s chin coupled with his bloodshot pupils gives his sorry state away.
“I’m fucked,” he offers, as he looks down and shakes his head in disgust.
Bogaerts is still giving him the eyes.
“The race is over if we don’t do something. You must get back in the group and give me an effort hard as you can up the Tunnel Road.”
“How far away is that?” quizzes Archbold.
“Around 20k to the bottom; hard as you can up. We have to bring the break back.”
Bogaerts has his homework done and talks his riders through the race manual, imparting the race plan, before every battle.
Archbold must not only get back into the front group, but go to the front of it and try to bring back the break which his teammate Wilson is in.
Bogaerts knows it’s shit or bust so he also deploys McCarthy, Downey and Doull for duty at the front.
The latter two must be used sparingly as they’re still in with an outside chance of overall victory.
Archbold puts on his gloves and sticky bottle and he’s rocketing back up to the front group like a man late for a job interview.
The gap is now 1:10 and Bogaerts is growing anxious.
He drops a gear and rips up the outside of the cavalcade and depleted peloton en route to Wilson in the break.
There, buried in the lineout, is their man Wilson tapping through.
“You do not ride one metre in front; you slow it down,” yelps Bogaerts to the U23 national champion in his second year with the team.
Stacey Kelly is sure to look after all her riders; it's the back markers who will need the food and encouragement most today.
“One minute between break and front group”, barks the commissaire over race radio.
We pull in between break and front group and Bogaerts does his own manual calculation.
The commissaires have it spot on but Bogaerts is a glass half-full type; “40 seconds,” he roars at the now Archbold-led small peloton.
The Kiwi is absolutely dying, but he did as he was told.
“Some riders becoming distanced from the tail end of the chase,” comes the next dispatch from race radio. Bogaerts straightens up just a little.
We start the Tunnel Road climb and more county men get dumped out the back.
Then we see Archbold get shelled out too; barely moving, swinging wildly. And it’s clear he is not getting back on now.
Bogaerts gives him a jacket for the hellish ride to the finish. He’ll need it today.
Robert Jon McCarthy wins the opening stage; but he must follow team orders and ride for others on stage 5 into Clonakilty (Photo: Ramsey Cardy - Sportsfile)
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There is no time to hang around for condolences, however.
An Post’s young Australian McCarthy, the winner of the opening stage and first yellow jersey of the race, is now lighting it up on the most difficult part of the climb.
The gap is down to 30 seconds and the Irish-born Aussie is driving it so hard he’s shedding more and more out the back of the group. In fact, he drives it so hard he blows himself up.
He’s a long way from sunny crits in Adelaide now.
But the gap is first closing and then closed; the race is back together and we start the rip-roaring descent into Glengarriff. The plan is working.
Stacey Kelly, the team’s soigneur, is there at the base of the climb with musettes packed with food to hand up to her charges.
Bogaerts tells her to wait for Archbold way back the road.
If they are to win, the Kiwi must come home inside the time limit and live to fight for the team in the coming stages.
Young Jack Wilson gets up the road but he is sacrificed for stronger team mates higher placed overall (Photo: Toby Watson)
A day earlier from Charleville to Caherciveen, Archbold was last man on the road. Today, he would be second last man home.
We drive on. Suddenly, there’s a skirmish up ahead.
A group has broken clear. A dozen or so.
There’s a green jersey in there and they are motoring up Derrycreha outside Glengarriff.
“Twelve men breaking clear; stand by for numbers,” crackles race radio as an eternity ensues before No 9 is announced; An Post’s Downey.
“They have a gap of 200 metres, can we get a car here?” demands the commissaire.
This is dangerous.
Two Austrians, two Italians, two Madison Genesis and the defending champion Marcin Bialoblocki are among the escape with Downey.
The early breakaway looked good for a while but was caught before the stage exploded (Photo: Ramsey Cardy - Sportsfile)
The gap jumps from 1:55 to four minutes in a little under five kilometres and Bogaerts is the happiest man in Ireland. He has turned matters around dramatically.
Instead of being hunters, they are now the hunted.
The An Post boys behind have stalled and as we start the last climb of the day, at Cousane, the gap has extended to six minutes.
The craic is good in the car now and stickybottle is learning some of the inner workings of Bogaerts' mind. This drama makes him tick.
We talk as Downey settles into the rhythm of the race and Sam Bennett, who was in the race last year for An Post but has since moved on, texts Bogaerts.
He wants to know if Downey is riding into yellow; a fantastic moment considering Bogaerts has just been talking about his progress.
The Belgian says Bennett may have graduated to a bigger team, but he is still part of the An Post-Chainreaction family.
Downey comes back from the breakaway to the car for instructions. The gap is now eight minutes.
He wants to know who can sprint, who can punch, what the finish is like.
The Banbridge man is smiling. He knows he’s heading for arguably the biggest result of his life.
His mother and father are at the finish line too, and his brother Mark is tweeting furiously.
“Believe in yourself now, you are sprinting very well this year,” encourages Bogaerts.
“But you must try to test them; on the next hill I want you to attack; see who is strong.”
“Attack from rider number nine,” crackles race radio. It is quickly followed by news Downey has been recaptured.
As the escape hurtles into the finish the attacks and counter attacks come thick and fast. Downey joins the action but nothing sticks.
Inside a kilometre to go and the shadow boxing is over. The big Pole Bialoblocki lands a crushing blow and takes the win.
Briton Ian Bibby of Madison Genisis (left) is passed just before the line by last year’s final yellow jersey Marcin Bialoblocki, the UK-based Pole riding for Velosure Giordana (Photo: Ramsey Cardy – Sportsfile)
Downey is boxed in at the final bend and has to settle for 8th. He’s dejected.
His mother Margaret doesn’t know how to react because her boy is the first Irishman home but isn’t exactly laughing.
She’s still the proudest person there. Father Seamus, an Olympian and former Rás yellow jersey, offers a well done and Kurt is next on the scene.
He helps him off the bike and waits for an explanation.
“I just got boxed in by (Ian) Bibby (Madison Genesis) and had to lock up so I had to start my sprint again. I’m sorry.”
Bogaerts says nothing but one suspects he feels Downey has done a good job getting into such an important move.
They live to fight another day. Archbold comes home 35 minutes down. Stacey Kelly has waited on her own, as usual, to feed him as she would all the others.
They leave no man behind.
They didn’t win the race but they rode for each other and they still have a chance of the final yellow.
Downey is now 8th overall, just 58 seconds behind new leader Clemens Fankhauser.
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