Mark Dowling finished 14th on today's third stage of the An Post Rás and took home the county rider prize. However, he said he has been sick and was unable to challenge for the stage win, despite the course being "tailor-made" for him (Photo: Sean Rowe)
By Brian Canty
Mark Dowling said today’s stage of the Rás was tailor-made for him but a touch of sickness this week prevented him from putting out the watts he felt were needed to really challenge.
The ASEA-Wheelworx man was 14th at 21 seconds and took the county rider prize.
He hailed the efforts of his teammates for their work in dragging back the break and because of that chase he felt he had to give it 100% to try and reward their efforts.
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“The plan was just to sit in most of the day and take a gamble the break would come back together at the bottom of the climb.
“I sat in, the large group was away but (Bryan) McCrystal, Marcus (Christie) and (Adam) Armstrong all got on the front and really drove it to guarantee the break would come back for me.
“Then when the climb came I was the first to take off. It was into a block headwind and I didn’t actually get that far.
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Mark Dowling on the podium for the county rider presentation after stage 3 into Dingle (Photo: Morgan Treacy - Inpho)
“I was judging my effort but there was a committed chase behind so I decided to cut my losses about halfway up and I went back to the chase group to save myself.
“I got dropped about 500 metres from the top, managed to get back on right at the bottom but the race was over when the front group was gone,” he said.
But afterwards, he confessed to being a little under the weather.
“I’ve been sick, I’ve been terrible, I’ve been sick now for all eight times I’ve done the Rás.
“The first two days the plan was to ride into the race but I was stuck to the road.
“I was behind all three crashes the first day and punctured on the bottom of the climb where it split yesterday, even though I was way out of the race by then anyway.
“But I think I’m coming back around. I know my best legs aren’t here, I knew I wasn’t on it today.
“A stage like that was tailor-made for me but it maybe came a bit early. I had to give it a dig and give it a try.
“The lads in the team were fully committed and had faith in me so it was up to me to try and pull it off but that’s how it goes, I did the best I could with the legs I had.”
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