Ronan McLaughlin: Would love a stage win in Donegal
By Brian Canty
Ronan McLaughlin has said he is “counting down the days” to the start of this year’s An Post Rás, which gets underway this Sunday in Dunboyne, Co Meath.
McLaughlin is part of the An Post-Sean Kelly team that will start as favourites to win the race overall again this year.
Last year it was Lithuanian powerhouse Gediminas Bagdonas who notched up two stage wins on arguably two of the hardest days - Kilrush and Castletownbere – as well as outright victory. And he’s back this time again hunting the GC title.
But Donegal man McLaughlin has designs on making his mark on the race too, and it’s little surprise what stage he’ll be targeting.
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“Well I think it’s fairly obvious the stage into Buncrana is one I’ll be aiming for,” he enthused of the day that ends near his family home.
“It’s the local stage so if I wasn’t looking forward to that there’d be something wrong. They’re all my training roads.”
The An Post-Sean Kelly team has a great record in the race and is always the most watched squad. However, McLaughlin said the riders are not fazed by the favourites tag, saying the team are all going well.
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“We’re all pretty psyched and in good form; Sam (Bennett), Sean (Downey) and Connor (McConvey) and obviously Gedi is too, after winning here last year. He’s got a few good memories of Ireland.”
“The four Irish guys are obviously really motivated, particularly as it’s the only Irish race of the year (we ride as a team). Anybody who is going has earned their place on this team. Even over the last few weeks and the last month or two, we’ve all shown that we’re in form to go to the Rás and then obviously the extra motivation you get from the Rás will help. Being in your home race brings you to a level higher again. So I think it’s probably the strongest team we could put in the Rás.”
Though a member of the most fancied team, McLaughlin said the “unpredictable” nature of the race means their first task is to target stage wins and see what happens thereafter.
“I think the whole team are going to go into it and go for stages because you know with the Rás it is so unpredictable and hard to read sometimes. So I think for the first three days the plan is to go in and race it as a few one-days and see where we are after that. You can’t go in with the plan of protecting one guy. We’re all in good form so we just have to take our chances.”
Despite that, he knows Bagdonas is the man to watch.
“I think Gedi can definitely win. On paper you’d say he is the favourite but we’ve to see what happens. He’s definitely looking forward to it and he’ll be going all out for it.”
One domestic-based rider McLaughlin reckons could win a stage is Adam Armstrong.
“At the risk of leaving someone out, the first person that comes to mind is Adam Armstrong. He’s obviously extremely talented and after winning the Tour of Ulster recently he must be in good form, so Adam is the first person that comes to mind.”
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