Having taken the overall race lead on the opening stage
riding in a strong team, Fintan Ryan says he will wait to see how race the Tour
of Ulster 2019 title pans out.
His Cycling Leinster team mates Mark Dowling and JB
Murphy did the damage on the second climb of the opening stage yesterday.
Their efforts put the pressure on and a 20-man group rode
clear; anyone who wasn’t in it now out of contention.
Later in the stage when five broken clear from the large
front group, Ryan made the cut and beat the others sprinting.
“It was a hard
day out with five catc2 climbs,”
he told stickybottle after his win in Banbridge at the end of 89.5 miles.”
He said that
after Murphy and Dowling – both Rás Mumhan stage winners at Easter and possible
Tour of Ulster winners themselves – the work in the escape group was shared.
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“It was a
big group with nearly every team represented so just rolling through handy brought the gap out quickly,” he said.
“The whole
group worked relatively well until
about 50km to go, when guys started to attack.”
He added that he
and his Leinster team mates made sure to cover the attacks, though the group
didn’t split.
That only exception
was Conor Hennebry (Dan Morrissey-MIG-Pactimo) going clear solo and gaining
almost one minute.
However, shortly
after he was caught, and with the finish nearing, the winning scenario
commenced.
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“Once it
all came back together I knew a few guys would be spent so I pushed on a few
times to try to drag groups away,” he said.
“Eventually it
was Conor Hennebry that
initiated the move about with
7km to go.”
Aside from Ryan
and Hennebry, king of the hills jersey holder Lindsay Watson (Powerhouse Sport)
was also in the group, as was James Jobber (Upshift Velo) and Matthew Clarke
(Foran).
“The five
of us got a gap quickly and we all rode
through honestly,” Ryan said of the move.
“I knew
I'd be hard pushed to beat the rest of the lads but the track speed stands to you - even after 145km,” he said of
fancying his chances more from the smaller group.
“I was delighted
to win; I’ve been 2nd three times already this year so it was a relief not to be runner up.”
A former national
junior road race champion, Fintan Ryan has spent recent years as an
international track rider.
A member of the Kingspan Track Team, he has ridden for Ireland all over the world and on the Six Day circuit.
Looking ahead to the next two stages, he said while his team was strong it was not clear yet how the overall would go.
“We have five really strong guys. Three of us are still in contention for the overall so we will see how it plays out.
“I'm looking forward to the day in pink and I'll just have to take it stage by stage and see how the race pans out.”
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