A former double winner of the Rás, Philip Cassidy is managing ‘Dunboyne DID Cycleways’ in this year’s race. Here he gives you the low down on how stage 2 might go.
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“The first day nerves will be gone this morning, but the riders will still be anxious to stay alert in the early part of today’s stage to make sure they’re not caught out by a big move getting away that may not be seen again.”
“It’s certainly too early I would think for the NODE4 Giordana team to start protecting the yellow jersey. There’s just way to far to go to start thinking in those terms; the gaps on GC are also tiny and the five-man teams in the Ras just doesn’t really allow any team control things for too long; unless they have some really very strong riders.”
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“So the finishing order yesterday and the GC order this morning shouldn’t have any massive influence on how the racing unfolds today. People will be treating it like a first stage, or a one day race – just looking to see can they get in some moves.”
“And that’s how it will be for the next couple of stages. The teams will only start to think seriously about riding for GC after we have around half of the stages done; until then the best riders will be looking for opportunities to get up the road. So that means aggressive racing.”
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“Obviously in store today on stage 2 we have 158kms from Kilkenny to Gort. Again, you can expect a very fast one, with attacking pretty much from the gun.”
“Looking down the road a bit, you have a cat 3 climb at Coonmore after 75km. You wouldn’t expect that to cause massive damage, but if it’s been a very fast opening, the race might split there a little bit more than people expect. And you can say the same for the second climb – a cat three at Ogonnelle at 114km.”
“Looking at the profile, what catches the eye is three third cat climbs at 131km, 134km and 142km. So that’s three KOH primes within 11kms. That’s a lumpy section and damage will most likely be done there. There is really no rest there.”
“But the reality is that the roads today are very undulating and fast right from the first climb and even where the inclines are not categorised you may well see a lot of splits taking place. They are the kind of roads where the really strong riders who are on top of their game will be in their element and may well be able to put others under real pressure.”
“So while there are five categorised climbs, they won’t be the only key feature of the route – it’s up and down all the way. You will have crosswinds out to Killaloe and from that point you are looking at a tail-cross wind and that can really make a difference; that can make it fast and hard.”
“After the last of the three final climbs (Killanena at 142km) it’s only 16kms to the finish. That’s around about the distance the winning breakaway struck from home yesterday. So it’s that last section from the top of the third last climb at 1315.km to the finish that’s going to be key today in terms of settling the stage win. But a lot of damage could be done well before that.”
“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again though – there will be action from the gun today and don’t be surprised if it throws up a big group going clear. At least the weather is good for the lads this morning and it should be another exciting stage.”
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