By Shane Stokes
He held yellow from day two of the Rás Tailteann but now, with one stage remaining Odhran Doogan’s approach has shifted from defence to attack.
The Cycling Ulster rider heads into Sunday’s concluder needing to make up 22 seconds on the new overall leader George Kimber (Isle of Man Cycling Club).
It’s a tall order, particularly as the final stage to Bective is on mostly flat roads, but he has pledged to give it a shot.
“There's still a day to go. It's not over yet,” he told Stickybottle at the finish in Mountrath.
“It's not a massive gap, but it's bigger than I had in any stage so far. It’ll definitely be a challenge, but it's definitely not over.”
Doogan went into the race chasing stage wins, having been highly placed on several stages in the past.
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He surprised himself with how well he was riding, picking up six seconds in time bonuses on day one and ending that stage third overall.
He was part of a key breakaway on day two and leaped to the top of the general classification, and went on the offensive early on Saturday’s stage.
A break of 14 riders formed early on, with Doogan present. And while the rest of the field moved to close that down, his aggressive riding showed that he meant business on the stage.
“It was a hard day. I learned from yesterday not to get caught on the back foot early on,” he said soon after the podium presentation, where he exchanged his yellow for the blue jersey of best county rider.
“Going into the stage, that was the plan. To not really get up the road, but just not really let a big group like yesterday get up the road. I found myself in the break with a with a teammate, Lindsay Watson as well. So I knew I was in a good situation like that.
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“But the gap wasn't going over 30 seconds, so I knew there was no point in pushing too hard. It was still quite early in the stage then it got brought back, and they just kept following moves.”
Another break was clear approaching the first category Wolftrap climb near the end of the stage. This included the defending Rás champ Dom Jackson (UK: Foran CT) but due to time loss this week he wasn’t a threat to the overall.
What was dangerous was the Team Ireland rider Jamie Meehan, who had started the day 11 seconds back. An even bigger threat was Kimber, six seconds behind on Saturday morning.
Meehan and Ireland teammate Dean Harvey went all out on the Wolftrap climb, dragging Kimber and Adam Lewis (USA: Team Skyline) clear.
Doogan realised soon enough that he wouldn’t be able to stay with them.
“There was a bit of a race into the bottom of the climb. The Irish team was on the front, driving pretty hard. Two Irish guys, a guy from Skyline, and then myself nipped off at the start of the climb. But I found myself in the red pretty early,” he said.
“So I pulled back and joined the next group on the road. I thought if I got over the top in that group with the GC guys, that we'd have a chance to bring them back.
“Then over the top, I worked really hard to bring the gap down, but unfortunately, it wasn't enough in the end.”
Doogan will look out for chances on Sunday, hoping that the final stage might have a bigger impact than might be anticipated.
Whatever happens, he has already had a successful race.
“To be honest, it's better than I could have expected,” he said. “But I don't know. My views have changed. I didn't come here for GC but I'm a bit disappointed to lose the GC going into for the last day.
“So yeah, a bit of mixed emotions. But I can definitely take away a lot of confidence from this week, no matter how it ends. I think I'd be pretty happy anyway.”
