Hawkins is still chasing a stage win but has had his best Ras ever; pictured here by Stevie McKenna on Mamore Gap.
Peter Hawkins came into the An Post Ras this week hopeful of taking a stage win, and while that result has thus far eluded him, he has been at a new level; taking four top ten placings and climbing with the best riders in the race.
The 26-year-old from Belfast told stickybottle he is still determined to try and bag a win.
“We’ve got one stage left tomorrow to try and get a win, I’m not ruling myself out of that,” he said.
Hawkins was seventh on stage 1, eight on stage 3, 7th again on stage 5 and 9th on today’s stage 7 into Cootehill. While he says there are faster sprinters in the race then him, he believes he can be in with a shout for the stage win tomorrow.
Advertisement
Apart from that, he says he has been very happy with his climbing.
Related News
“We have had other guys on the team trying to get into the moves so for me it has been a case of trying to look after myself as best I can and then looking to do something in the sprints,” said the IG Sigma Sport rider.
“On the stage over Mamore I didn’t really go for it until the actual climb and I managed to get over the top with just a few guys ahead of me. We were then picked up by a group with Bagdonas and a few others in it coming in the road. He was faster than me in the sprint and so was Marcin Bialoblocki (NODE4-Girodana) so that left me third in the gallop and seventh on the stage.”
“I’d ridden this race three times before this year and I’d never been in the top ten on a stage. So I feel I’m at a new level this year, but obviously I came into it hoping to win a stage.”
Hawkins contracted glandular fever in the weeks after riding the race in 2009 and missed the second half of that season and the first half of the next through illness. He said the second half of 2010 and all of last year – based in Belgium for both of those seasons – was all about rebuilding his strength. His current form has confirmed for him that he is back to where he was and has progressed beyond that level.
“I’d put it down to a few things; the boost that you get with a change of team, not getting sick, training with a power metre for the first time and also not working over the winter, it’s all of those things.”
“I’m going to try and give tomorrow my very best shot and then I have one of the Tour Series crits in Canary Wharf in London next Thursday, and a few more of those ahead. I’ll be back for the national championships and I think with the level the cycling scene is at now (in Britain where his team is based) I can get a really good level of racing for the rest of the year and improve more.”
Topics
