Paidi O'Brien throws his arms in the air to celebrate his second stage win of the Kerry Group Rás Mumhan. The big question is: Can he hold it until Monday? (Photo: Brendan Slattery)
By Brian Canty
Paidi O’Brien said he “couldn’t ask for more” after winning the opening two stages of the Kerry Group Rás Mumhan.
The Osbourne Meats-McCarthy Cycles man won his seventh ever stage of the race yesterday with his renowned burst of speed and was set to wear the yellow jersey into today’s penultimate stage around Waterville.
But he believes there’s a long way to go yet before he can think about holding the lead.
“There’s a lot of hard racing done in the first two days but there’s a lot more to come,” was his grim assessment of what's ahead on stage 3’s big showdown.
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“I was lucky again today to win, I was in good moves but they were brought back,” he said after yesterday’s stage 2.
“Then when McCrystal went and got a gap of a minute with 40k to go I thought we weren’t seeing him again.
“And when Morton went across we probably thought that was that.”
Alas, some strong chasing from the JLT-Condor team brought them back.
What a beautiful image captured by photographer Brendan Slattery during stage 2 of Rás Mumhan yesterday.
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“It would have been a massive ride by both of them had they stayed away.
“There’s been no steady riding so far but that has to break at some point.
“It’s very unusual to see so many guys still in contention – usually it’s down to a handful by the time we get to Waterville.”
Two sprints in two days then, but he says that won’t be the case tomorrow.
“I cannot see that happening. As I said, it has to break at some point in the race.
“There won’t be a big group coming to the line like we had today and yesterday.
“I have to be cute, I have to pick the right moves. I’m not even thinking about yellow, to be honest.
“Tomorrow is where the race could really see a big shake-up and I’ll do my best to be in there.”
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