A shattered Ronan McLaughlin at the stage 4 finish in Bundoran (Photo: Paul Mohan, Sportsfile)
By Brian Canty
Blasting off the front of a peloton packed with professionals and riding solo to a stage win in your home county is what young riders the world over dream of.
It was ‘that’ close for the man from Muff yesterday. But his searing effort in staying away for over 70 kilometres just wasn’t quite good enough.
“It was probably one of the best days of my life up until about a kilometre to go and then I realised they were going to catch me. No matter how far I dug, I couldn’t, I just couldn’t. Coming in the road I must have tried to go about 10 times, keep trying, I kept attacking.”
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“At one stage with 10km to go I got out of the saddle and my arms cramped… and then in the last kilometre, I was doing everything I could to try and ride the bike.”
“Kurt was giving me all the information, he was telling me the teams were riding behind and I knew the four guys in the team would be doing everything they could to help me too, so....”
What McLaughlin did yesterday will go down as one of the most audacious attacks in recent memory in the Rás, but was it the plan yesterday morning?
“The plan was to ride aggressively and try and get up there; I knew I was in good form. I was kind of thinking this is a bit of a stupid move. I attacked hoping that someone would come with me. I was away with four different groups. It was in one of those groups that I attacked on my own and no one followed me.”
“I said I’d keep going on my own until I get a time gap and if it gets over a minute I’d keep riding. When I got a time gap, it was 30 seconds to two guys behind and over two minutes back to the bunch behind so I said, ‘yeah’.”
“Whether it was a good move or not, it kind of takes the pressure off the (team) I thought. I’m already out of the GC after the crashes (on Tuesday) so I said I might as well give it a go and put the head down.”
”Then I was told one of the chasers was number 34 who I knew was high on the classement, so I couldn’t let him catch me or I’d be back to square one.”
“I definitely couldn’t wait because if that guy got up [to me], I wouldn’t have been able to help him at all. He’d be going into the lead by a long way so, in the interests of the team I kept riding (on my own).”
“Those guys mustn’t have been too strong anyway because they came to within 15seconds and were losing time all the way then.”
And what was going through his head when he thought a solo stage win might be in the offing?
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“Just kind of, ignore the pain and the effort and keep the head down and stay on a constant effort. Taking the shortest line through every corner and get seconds every way I can was my plan. It was really difficult because the pace and effort at that length; 70 kilometres, you know it’s going to be a long effort and you have to pace yourself.”
“Because of the crash (on Tuesday) I had my training bike, and that had a power meter on it so that helped me because I was aiming to keep my effort around 350 [watts]. At the end of the stage though, my sprints were only hitting around 350...”
Having the home support, he said, was “very special”.
“It definitely helped me a lot. Like, every time we came to a village or a town, a school, there was a massive cheer; it was definitely inspiring. But for 10km or 20km I couldn’t really hear anything... it’s pretty hard to put into words.”
”I keep beating myself up but I have to tell myself there is nothing more I could’ve done. I haven’t seen results or anything but I think there was only a small group come in at the finish so it tells you how hard the bunch was riding. I just have to stop beating myself up though. There was nothing more I could have done.”
All Photos by Sportsfile
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