Ireland’s Damien Shaw on why this "mental" Rás is far from over
Damien Shaw says the Rás has been “mental” so far and while the gaps are now bigger he believes it’s far from over (Photo: Toby Watson)
By Brian Canty
Damien Shaw is Ireland’s best general classification hope at the An Post Rás after five stages.
And even though he’s 4:32 down on race leader James Gullen (JLT Condor) he still believes there’s more to come before Sunday’s finish.
The An Post-ChainReaction rider has been in attacking form all week.
He has played a key role in helping the men in green take two stage wins as well as the yellow jersey.
Yesterday saw his hopes of yellow take a hit when he was part of a chase group that never managed to bridge across to the six leaders that contested the stage victory into Dungloe.
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But he reckons there’s still a long way to go to Skerries for the concluding stage on Sunday.
“It’s been a very good Rás so far,” he said. “You are expected to win a stage and not too many days go by without us getting something major out of the race.
“To have two stage wins is really good and even the way GC is going there might be some space for more as well.
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“I’m happy with the way I’ve been going,” he continued. “I haven’t missed much or the team hasn’t either.
“We’re kind of just racing aggressively and I can only talk from when I started racing but I’ve seen such a difference this year with the attacking mindset of guys.
“Guys are just really putting their noses in the wind and seeing good come from it.
“Hopefully if we keep doing that up we can get something more out of it.”
Shaw himself has been one of the main aggressors but he will rue not getting across to the move yesterday.
He did have teammate and eventual stage winner Regan Gough up there but he would be leading the race, or close to it, had be bridged.
“I’m not feeling too badly,” he said after yesterday’s longest, 181km, stage.
“I’ve done a lot of riding the last few days and we’ve rode really well and been in most of the moves.
“I wouldn’t say I’m fresh as a daisy but I’m grand. I saw the move go yesterday and I relied on having Regan there to disrupt things.
“We got the chase going and there was a few from the same team but it just didn’t work for whatever reason.”
But he won’t throw in the towel in his hunt for a stage win and even the GC might yet swing his way.
“I don’t know…. any other year you’d look at it at being sewn up but it’s just been a bit mental this year.
“You’ve seen the seesaw effect of GC being turned upside down day after day; the yellow jersey losing 5 or 6 minutes, stage winners losing time the next day.
“About 90 per cent of the peloton lost eight minutes yesterday, it’s just mental.”
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