Henry Cooke up the road yesterday before being recaptured and winning the bunch sprint to take stage victory and the yellow jersey.
Scoring his first win for two years on the opening stage of Rás Maigh Eo yesterday, Henry Cooke said he was delighted but had not thoughts about defending the yellow jersey.
With a morning time trial to negotiate followed by an afternoon road stage today, Sunday, he said he would assess the situation after the test.
“It’s all to play for yet but I’m not overly worried about it,” he said of yellow.
“If I did a good time trial ride, then great. But I’ll probably approach the road stage as a one day stage and we’ll see what happens.”
Cooke, who rides with Limerick CC, will have to do it on his own because his only team mate on the race was forced to go home last night due to work commitments.
Advertisement
And despite now having raised his arms in victory since stage 3 of Rás Chonamara the year before last, Cooke said he felt confident during yesterday that he could do well in a bunch finish.
“I knew myself that up to the finish there was a slight hill that was hard enough,” he told stickybottle.
Cooke said once the riders hit the coast, the terrain and the wind became much more of a challenge.
“So I felt if I got up to the front for the sprint I might do well. Coming to the last KOH just a few kilometres before the finish, I made sure I gave it a good dig to get a good position.”
Finding himself close to the front of the bunch on the run-in, he said Simon Tuomey of Cork Giant was trying to get clear.
But when that move was covered, the sprint opened and he went for broke.
“I came off (Tuomey’s) wheel and I just managed to power it up to the finish line.”
The 18-year-old first-year U23 said he planned to target this year as he effectively had a break in serious studying.
Having done his Leaving Cert last year he got the points for medicine and is currently on a pre-medicine course in NUI Galway before starting his degree proper in September, when his workload will increase considerably.
He said he was “delighted” to notch another win yesterday and take the yellow jersey.
Related News
With the field staying together on stage 1, a huge number of riders is in contention for overall honours. One man who will be hoping for a good TT result is Cale Coen, above, who bagged a podium finish in the time trial at the Junior Tour last year.
“It was very, very fast so that meant it was very hard to get away for the first 30km or so; pretty much a tailwind out on a very straight road.
“I put in a few attacks and there was lads attacking constantly but just getting brought back straight away
“And obviously it was the first day of a stage race so everyone’s attacking, everyone is eager, looking to ride hard and be motivated.
“But then as we got out towards the coast, the roads started getting harder and a few breaks were going away.”
Cooke said at one point around eight riders went clear and that he got across in a group that included pre race favourite and eventual 3rd place finisher on the stage Daire Feeley of iTap.
“We were riding grand but then lads were soft tapping; nobody was really committing properly.
Henry Cooke shows his delight as he edges out Liam Corcoran of Castlebar CC and Daire Feeley of iTap (Photo: www.jimmymcelroy.com – follow Jimmy on Facebook and Twitter)
“I think they were waiting for riders like Feeley (to attack). And fair play to him, he really rode his heart out all day.
“But he was really marked out of it; there was nothing going for him.”
Cooke said while he normally preferred to go on the offensive, when the 90km stage turned right at the halfway point and the riders faced a crosswind he knew there was little point in trying to break clear.
“Everyone was on one side of the road in the gutter, just suffering. It was too fast and the wind was too strong to get away.”
From that point he decided to “play the waiting game”.
He said he felt confident of doing something if the stage came down to a sprint because he had almost taken the first sprint prime despite only realising it was there when he was on top of it.
Topics
