Eventual winner, Darragh Zaidan piles the pressure on at the front of the bunch in Gorey yesterday before getting clear to take the stage and points classification lead (Photo: Amy-Norah Farrell)
Darragh Zaidan has expressed his delight at taking yesterday’s stage 3 of the Gorey Three Day in the Wexford town, saying he feared he may fade before getting his chance at contesting the win.
“It was aggressively negative, there was a lot of cat and mouse on the opening laps,” Zaidan said of the 96km circuit race passing through Gorey each time this afternoon.
“The first lap was very stop start, stop start. And then a break went on the second lap; I think two of three guys went away on Craanford, the KOH point.
“I had a go through the town, it got lined out a little bit but I more or less got stuck in no man’s land. After that on the tailwind it came back together again.
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“On the third lap there was nobody really committing to anything; it was very windy. I made a few big digs but I was brought back each time. Then I put in a really big dig into a headwind on an uphill and I got away with a junior from Cork County.
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“We rode well together. I think he struggled a bit on the descents and the tailwinds on the junior gears; I did a lot of the pulling.
“I did a full lap with him and then when we turned left back into the headwind he struggled a bit, so with about between 10k and 15k to go I pressed on (alone).
“I was really starting to suffer at that stage and then with 8km to go, one of the Lucan lads, Mark Reilly came up to me. I was on my hands and knees.
“The bunch was at about 20 seconds when he came across to me. So I clung on to him for dear life; I was after putting in a huge effort and doing a lot of work out there with the junior rider first and then on my own.
“The last 7km was pretty hard; he was strong and I struggled to hold the wheel. But after leaving everything on the road I wasn’t going to let that stage go.
“At 3k to go then the legs started to come good. You smell the finish and you know what’s next; you jump at 150 metres to go and that’s what happened.”
Around 30 seconds later the Lucan CRC-led bunch hurtled up the road with their speed king John Priest barrelling in to take the bunch gallop for third spot.
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