Mark Dowling, leading, piles on the pressure in the breakaway on the road to victory. The ASEA-Wheelworx man made it two wins for the team with a fine victory but he said he would have given them both back for a shot at yellow (Picture: Brendan Slattery - TheLittleBigBikeShop)
By Brian Canty
He’s always been a ‘one to watch’ since he started competing in Kerry Group Rás Mumhan. But yesterday, Mark Dowling took only his second ever stage win in the four-day Easter showpiece in Kerry.
It was a textbook ride from the ASEA-Wheelworx man; escaping in the break, shirking no turns, whittling the escape down as the line loomed before unleashing a deadly attack that nobody could match.
Besides making it two wins for the team in four days, they also won the points and the mountains jersey but Dowling admitted they’d have traded it all for the yellow jersey.
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“It was nice to get a stage win, but it was more of a consolation,” he said. “It’s not what we went there for; we were all capable of going for the win.
“When we got into the break the first day we were pretty sure myself and Ali (Macaulay) could go for the win but things were turned on their head the next day.
“I was disappointed it wasn’t going to be me going for the jersey but I was looking forward to showing what I could do for the team and emptying myself for them.
“They emptied themselves for me in the Des Hanlon and Ali emptied himself for me on stage one, so I was happy to ride for the others (after that).”
Dowling takes a great win; only his second stage victory at Rás Mumhan (Picture: Brendan Slattery - TheLittleBigBikeShop)
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Dowling was sixth on GC starting yesterday, but needed almost four minutes to take back the jersey, so he knew it was all about the stage.
“I put in a few real hard turns when we whittled back the break to just Anto (Walsh – Aquablue) and Paul O’Reilly (UCD-Fitzcycles.ie).
“I pulled the gap back out to 25 seconds (on the bunch), I knew it was touch-and-go on the last two laps but on the last lap I knew we had it.
“I knew I had to keep doing hard turn to stay away, though; we could see the bunch and they were only 7 or 8 seconds behind us.
“I was confident of winning it but I had to be careful because Anto and Paul were working together a bit.
“Paul let the wheel go and I had to close it to Anto but once I closed that I just kept the hammer down to make sure I was first into the last corner.
“I didn’t realise I had a gap into the corner so I put another hard dig in and had a decent gap.”
Overall, Dowling was reasonably satisfied.
“McGlinchey was too strong in the situations we were in; the lads (McCrystal or Ali) couldn’t shake him (on Saturday).
“They didn’t underestimate him; they saw themselves how strong he was.
“They executed the team plan to perfection by sending McCrystal up the road on Saturday but on Sunday when they were trying to jump him to try and get away he was just too strong and again yesterday.
“The stage was too short yesterday so the plan was to get me in the break but it was always going to be next to impossible to get back that time; he’s just a real hard rider to deal with.
“He’s an absolute dog, I said it before the race that he was the man to watch.”
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