Philip Cassidy, a former winner of the Rás overall and managing the Dunboyne DID-Cycleways team on this year’s race, talks you through the challenging road on the way to Buncrana.
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“One obvious observation first; today is one of those big, big Ras days. Donegal is always tough any time the race comes here, but when you throw in a wall like Mamore Gap you can bet the house there’ll be bodies everywhere.”
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“The stage today takes the field from Bundoran to Buncrana, with 149kms in total and seven categorised climbs. The only cat 1 climb on the route is Mamore Gap and that comes pretty late in the day; there’s only 12km to the finish once the riders get to the top of that. So with such a big climb coming so late, it means the race will already be well split up by that point.”
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“Some of the field will want to be riding a conservative race and holding back until later in the stage when they are going to need those reserves. But the danger with riding conservatively is that groups could be minutes up the road by the time you even hit Mamore and your stage – and your GC plans – are over before you even get to the climb.”
“So if you want to do well both on the stage and on GC, you have to be willing and able to ride today, the whole way. And if a strong group of guys decides they are going to mix it from the start, you have to be alert to that.”
“Apart from strong guys looking to ride hard from early, they may also want to get some team mates up into an early move so they can sit on when a chase starts. And then you have guys with stage win ambitions who are not great climbers. So they know they have to get up that road and have a few minutes before Mamore starts if they are going to get over that at the front of the race and be in with a chance of getting that stage win. So there are lots and lots reasons for people wanting to get away early today.”
“Apart from Mamore, the early roads today are fast and you have crosswinds too, so that is going to be a big factor. You have a climb like Barnsmore Gap after 41km. That’s only a cat 3 but if they decide to race really hard over that, it could split to ribbons that early in the stage.”
“I think this is going to be aggressive and fast from the start. If the start is fast, then lots of damage will be done long, long before the tough climbing starts. I think a breakaway will arrive clear at Mamore and then we’ll see if there are strong men in that group able to win this race. Or we’ll see if the teams of other GC contenders will have played their cards right, keeping their GC man within striking distance of the breakaway coming to the climb and the run into Bundoran. Should be a huge day.”
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