While delighted to be in the race leader’s yellow jersey after two stages at Kerry Group Rás Mumhan, Lindsay Watson said he was “not getting carried away” and would ride the next two stages “like a one-day race”.
Watson got clear in a two-man move with Darragh McCarter (Spellman Dublin Port) on Friday’s opening stage and beat his breakaway companion for victory. Both riders finished four seconds ahead of 3rd placed finisher Monte Guerini from England’s Foran Cycling Club.
A nine-man group then finished 12 seconds down on Watson and McCarter, though the remainder of most of the large original 20-rider breakaway was 1:25 back and the closest riders from the peloton with over four minutes in arrears.
“I went into it with no real expectations,” Watson told stickybottle of his win in Friday’s stage 1, saying he was only a late call up to the All human-VeloRevolution team after Tour of the North was cancelled.
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“I approached it like a one-day but the legs were good I knew the lads to watch. It split really early it was it was a fairly easy day for the 20 of us in the front. And then we just started the race with about 25 to 30k to go. When Darragh went, I knew he was a danger man for going long. So I went after him and we got away and I always felt I’d get the better of him at the finish.”
Watson added when Tour of the North was cancelled he had decided to rest last week and then use next week, when he is off work, for training purposes “with the view to the Tour of Ulster”. However, when a space came free in the All human-VeloRevolution team, he decided to take on Rás Mumhan at short notice.
“It was an expected ride and I think I’ve time it well. And from the first 10 or 20k on stage 1 I knew the legs were good,” he said, though adding there was still a long way to go in the race, even if he was leading and already had a stage win under his belt.
Watson continued: “I'm not going to get too carried away. I would be just as happy for Darnell to take it. So we have those two cards to play because he's not that far behind me.
"We are in a good position and ideally I would have liked him to take some time today and take the pressure off me. But the two of us are in a good position and we know who to watch. We'll race it like a one-day; race it to win the stage,” he said of tomorrow and Monday.
Aggressive racing on stage 2
After his victory on stage 1, and the way he and McCarter gained time on everyone else, meant Watson went into today’s stage 2 – some 113km from Killarney to Sneem - in yellow and with a good sense of whom the strong men were this weekend.
Today a group of 27 riders formed at the front and though a three-man move went clear from it in the final 25km and gained one minute, they were caught just before the finish.
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In that group was David Montgomery (Spellman Dublin Port), John Brosnan (Killarney CC) and Darnell Moore. While Moore normally rides for Caldwell Cycles and Watson usually competes with Powerhouse Sport, both are guesting with Aidan Crowley’s All human-VeloRevolution this weekend in Kerry.
Moore is among a group of eights riders who are all 17 seconds down on yellow jersey Watson. As they are both on the same team this weekend, they have cards to play over the coming two days.
“The race blew to bits in the first 20k today when the roads got narrow before the first KOH but after that nothing was really getting away,” said Watson of today’s stage 2. “I was clear myself with six guys after the first KOH but that came back. So I just followed the wheels of the guys that I knew where threats and ideally I wanted Darnell to get away in a move.”
While the pace and the climbs scattered the field all over the road from the very early point of today’s stage, the cat 1 Climb Ballaghisheen with about 40km complete did more damage and after the descent of that climb, two groups formed out front; totaling about 25 riders.
Watson was in the first group on the road, though it was soon caught by the chasing group by the second categorised climb if the day; Coomakista, crested with 70km completed and 43km to go.
Once those two groups merged, that made from a large breakaway riding away from everything else. The remains of the peloton – which would shatter through the stage – was already over two minutes back the road.
Montgomery was first to attack from the large lead group and soon he was joined by Brosnan and Moore. They quickly built a lead of about one minute, though it appeared some of the riders in the three-man lead group – and also in the large chasing group – were initially unsure where they stood overall in relation to others
Sensing that the three leading riders were capable of making it all the way to the finish in Sneem, Conor Hennebry (Dan Morrissey-Pactimo) attacked and he was joined by Watson – who said he was hoping to be towed across to the three leaders, including team mate Watson.
However, back in the chasing group it was Foran Cycling Club who began chasing. They soon caught Hennebry and Watson and when they did they continued to ride on the front.
It appeared they have been told Darnell Moore was riding in the yellow jersey and must be chased. Up ahead, Watson said it appeared when Montgomery realised Moore was virtual yellow jersey, he withdrew his full cooperation from that move.
“So it was all falling apart up front and with the Foran CC guys chasing (the three leaders) were coming back to us as we were coming into Sneem before we just went and did the we laps.”
And when the catch was made, just before the finish, Conor Murnane (UCD Cycling) club avoided a high speed crash just before the line to take the stage win. And as Watson finished in that lead group of 20, on the same time as Murnane, he retained his yellow jersey.
