Mark Dowling perhaps looking less than delighted on the podium at Seskin Hill stage end on the An Post Rás this afternoon (Photo: Ramsey Cardy - Sportsfile)
By Brian Canty
Though he won the county rider prize and finished seventh on the stage today up Seskin Hill from Clonakilty, Mark Dowling admitted his overwhelming emotion this evening on the An Post Rás is one of regret.
The DID Dunboyne rider had earmarked today’s 167 kilometre stage as one he felt he could win.
But having been unable to bridge across to a three-man move that formed in the final 30 kilometres of racing, he was out of contention by the time he hit the base of the climb with a kilometre or so to go.
“I was really trying to go for the stage,” he said.
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“I felt really good at the start of the day today. I was in all the important splits, but I knew when the rain came down and it got cold it’d be a bit of as lottery and it would be more about who had balls more than who had legs,” he continued, referring to the long descent into Carrick on Suir to the base of the final climb.
“I tried going at 25k to go or so. I was out there for a few kilometres on my own trying to catch the three leaders.
“But when the road went down a long drag downhill... and once they were doing up and over I didn’t have a chance. I was pedalling squares at that point. I knew that was the stage there, I felt that was my chance of a stage gone.
“So I said I’d give it a good lash down the descent and see if I could get a high stage placing. I didn’t care about crashing.
“I was about 25-30 riders back at the last corner, I knew it would be all about who had the balls at that point.
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“I said I’d risk the crash to get a result and natural instinct took over. I was still a bit back, I rode to the first left hander within myself and once we got to the flat (about 400 metres to go) I put the power down to try and claw back a few places, I didn’t know who or how many were ahead.”
He would pass a huge amount, including fellow county man Eoin Morton (Dublin Central UCD Arrow), but just couldn’t catch the winner who finished 27 seconds sooner.
“I put the pressure on myself to win; I never said I was going to win a stage, but that I wanted to. It doesn’t happen the way you want it 90 per cent of the time.
“I put the pressure on myself to win and I’m disappointed with that. Though seventh is a good result and the county rider prize, which is fantastic, so I’m over the moon with that, it’s great to get that.
“I thought I could have gotten more. When I saw my placing I knew I was capable of more. I just could not close that last 150 metres to those boys out the road.”
Good Lads: With the DID Dunboyne team on the start line of this race in Dunboyne last Sunday; seems like a lifetime ago now (Photo: Ramsey Cardy - Sportsfile)
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