Enjoying a rich vein of form of late, Ronan McLaughlin says he has been raring to go in recent weeks. And he is looking to see how far this Rás takes him (Photo: Bryan Keane – Inpho)
By Shane Stokes
Leader of the best county rider classification, Ronan McLaughlin has said he is enjoying a new wave of motivation in the sport after being married during the winter.
The former An Post team rider finished eighth on Thursday’s fourth stage and will rode stage five in the blue jersey denoting his lead in those standings; he is also tenth overall, 35 seconds off yellow.
“I am very pleased. I rolled in top ten there. It was one of the harder stages of the race, and probably the first real test,” he said.
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“I think was a stage that everybody was looking at as the first real test. I passed that, I will just take it as it comes.
“Having won a stage of the Tour of Ulster and won the Shay Elliott last week, everything else is a bonus, now, really. I am just trying to enjoy it.”
Last year McLaughlin said before the race that he was chasing a stage victory. Having gone so close into Bundoran in 2013, when a 70 kilometre solo break was caught within sight of the line, topping the podium on one of the days of the race has been a huge goal for him.
This year, he feels the pressure is off.
“I think every year for the last five or six years I have come into it and I have been targeting a stage beforehand,” he said.
“This year I got married in December, I was away on honeymoon for the whole of January. This year is just about enjoying my bike. It just happened to have worked out.
“The big thing is there is no big pressure on. We are just here to enjoy our racing. We have all been at a high level before. It is just about trying to enjoy our racing. That seems to be working out.
“Now, in saying that, every Sunday for the last three, four months since I came back from honeymoon I get a reminder saying ‘three weeks in May’ – ie Tour of Ulster, Shay Elliott and the Rás.
“So I have still been working towards this. So far it has been working out. If eighth and a day in the county jersey is as good as it gets, I will be happy enough with that, considering the two races I have won.”
McLaughlin looks in good shape, and is clearly in a good place mentally. He said that because he is feeling motivated, he has been able go deeper when he is on the bike.
And working as an active travel officer for Sustrans means that he can commute to work.
In fact, given that his job is to encourage children to cycle to school rather than take a car or a bus, there is a culture where it is encouraged that he himself is on his bike.
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All things together, he’s got a very good environment around him.
“In the last couple of years I was just riding my bike. I didn’t have much motivation to do a lot of specific training, whereas now I am really enjoying my bike. I’ve done more quality training.
For the last three, four weeks I have been struggling to sleep, because I am actually excited to get up and get out on my bike.
“In the last two weeks since Ulster I have been up nearly every morning awake wanting to get out on the bike at half five, six o’clock. It is a long time since I have that kind of feeling. It is good, so it is.”
McLaughlin said that he was slightly delayed by a crash halfway up the Healy Pass on stage four.
While he didn’t go down or have to come to a halt, the disruption in rhythm meant he had to chase hard to get back up to the front.
He said he was one of the last guys who were delayed to make it across.
“You could get unlucky and plenty of times I have been unlucky, I missed that split [in previous races]. But this time I was on the right side and in luck. So, happy days.”
McLaughlin’s Westmeath Viner-Caremark – Pactimo teammate Matteo Cigala was also in the front group at the end of stage four.
Both wanted to chase the stage win, and decided that if things were still together with two or three kilometres to go, they would work to keep things together for a gallop.
“There was an attack with about three kilometres to go,” McLaughlin explained. “I actually tried to attack slowly to bring everybody else across to that move.
“It ended up with that four of us got a small gap, but it came back together just coming under one kilometre. It was one of those sprints that you couldn’t really do much.
“Everybody was kind of in the position they were in, and you just sprinted from wherever you came around the last corners.”
Cigala is a fast finisher and took a superb second, his best-ever result in the Rás. He was best county rider on the stage, while McLaughlin – who is tied on time with Mark Dowling (Cycling Leinster), but ahead in stage placings – is best overall county rider.
“I think top ten and the county jersey for myself personally is the best I could have hoped today, given the situation after the Healy pass,” he said.
“It was unfortunate if Matteo didn’t take the stage…I know he desperately wants one. It would have been great if he had been able to pull it off.
“It wasn’t that he did anything wrong. It was just luck of the draw. I think there was one guy there who maybe just got a cleaner run at the line.”
But both riders are highly motivated to chase a stage win in the four stages to come. McLaughlin knows his form is very good and, as he says, also feels that the pressure is off.
"He wants another big result; he doesn’t need it. I am happy enough and looking forward to the rest of the week.”
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