Rás yellow jersey: "I've a couple of teammates who climb really well"
Nicolai Brochner Nielsen has been in winning form for the last month. He has begun on the Rás where he end rounded off last year.
By Shane Stokes
Nicolai Brochner Nielsen took up exactly where he left off last year, winning the opening stage of the An Post Rás into Longford on Sunday.
The Denmark Riwal Platform Cycling rider had taken the final stage of the 2016 race, adding to another bunch sprint victory on stage four.
He was clear in a long range break sparked off by An Post Chainreaction team’s Polish rider Przemyslaw Kasperkiewicz some 40 kilometres into the stage, 106 kilometres from the finish, and which gained a maximum lead of just over four minutes.
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The move was whittled down to four riders at the end and Brochner Nielsen showed that same finishing speed once again, beating Dennis Bakker (Netherlands Delta Cycling Rotterdam), Kasperkiewicz and Thómas Rostollon (France Armée de Terre) to the line.
“It was a really fast start. Really aggressive from a lot of teams,” the 23-year-old told stickybottle afterwards.
“I think about 40 kilometres we went away, six guys. I was worried that we were going to get caught but I think about halfway through the stage the field kind of gave up on the chase.
“We increased the speed in the front so that resulted in quite a significant gap. We started believing in going all the way.
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“We just kept pushing to the line. People came off the back of the group and we were only four guys left.
“I started thinking that I had to make sure that we stayed together as I knew I was going to be one of the fastest guys in the sprint. Thankfully I managed to do that…it went well.”
The break still had over two minutes with seven kilometres to go. This dropped to just 16 seconds by the line, a reflection of the cat and mouse game that went on before the gallop.
“It was real tactical coming into the sprint,” he said. “I had the front going around the last corner and I just slowly increased the speed.
“With about 200 metres to go I just went with everything I had. I knew that was the point where I could go full speed the whole way.”
The victory is actually his fourth UCI win in less than a month. On April 28th he took the 1.2-ranked GP Himmerland Rundt in Denmark.
This was followed by wins in the identically-ranked Ronde van Overijssel in the Netherlands on May 5th and the peculiarly-named Swedish event Scandinavian Race in Uppsala 1909-2017 eight days later.
“This year I have had three other wins that compare to this,” he said. “But this is one of the wins that I am most proud of.”
He has now got a good grip on the yellow jersey. The time bonuses for the win and also his first and second in intermediate Hot Spot sprints mean that he is nine seconds clear of Bakker and Kasperkiewicz, 15 up on Rostollon, 23 ahead of Alexandre Blain (Britain Madison Genesis) and 28 in front of Christopher McGlinchey (Cycling Ulster).
Those in the main bunch are already 31 seconds back.
So, what about his chances for the overall? “We will see how well I do,” he answered. “I can climb, but I doubt that I am going to be one of the strongest guys on the climbs in this race.
“But now I have a small gap so maybe that is going to play to my advantage.
“If not, I have a couple of teammates who climb really well as well. We will see how the week plays out.
"We are going to take it one day at a time and look for more stage wins.”
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