Adam Armstrong - centre, in white and blue - sprints in for 3rd place into Killybegs in Rás 2012. This year was a write off but he says he is determined to recapture his form of 2012 when he was one of the very best riders in Ireland.
By Brian Canty
Adam Armstrong believes a stage win in the An Post Rás is possible and he’s eager to get back training hard after a broken collarbone to prove wrong the people who believe his best years are behind him.
The 26-year-old Belfast man enjoyed a phenomenal 2012 season, which included a string of strong domestic wins and a great ride in the An Post Rás.
But that high was tempered by the low of the season just gone where he “never got going” and only bagged one win, in what he termed a “small town criterium”.
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Though he currently has no team for next year after leaving Eurocycles, he’s focusing now on getting himself right.
“This season was just a disaster for me, right from the start,” he explains.
“I didn’t have a great winter for various reasons. Weather was one reason, but I was busy in work and eventually when I came around I was trying to make up for lost time. And I picked up an injury and had to take time off and then I think I lost three weeks off the bike in March.”
“So trying to come back from that again; when I started to race it wasn’t there. It was disheartening because I knew what I was capable of and it just wasn’t there and I couldn’t do it.”
His first big race was the Tour of Ulster – which he won overall in 2012 - but like the rest of the year it did not go according to plan.
“It was a nightmare,” he says.
“I turned up and my bike was broken so I had to borrow a bike to ride the first stage and borrow a different bike to ride the next few stages. Then I had to buy myself a new bike to ride the Rás and then I crashed after three days and broke that, so May wasn’t a good month for me.”
“That was a hammer blow, the Rás. Even though I’d say I wasn’t in great form I was thinking if I could get a few days into my legs and get to Thursday or Friday then I could put one good day in.”
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“I didn’t have the same expectations as 2012. But I thought if I could survive a few days and stay upright I’d be fine. But I came down in the same crash as Peter Hawkins. So again, it just felt like nothing was lining up for me. Everything I tried to do was getting knocked back.”
He continued, searching for form but “wasn’t getting anywhere.
“I was just beating my head off a brick wall and I was gaining nothing for myself. I was turning up and not putting in a good account of myself in races. Every year as a senior I’ve been turning up winning or being there or thereabouts. But this year I wasn’t able to do it. I won one local town crit, that’s it. I’ve never had a season like that before.”
Armstrong was touted as one of the outstanding talents in the country from an early age and it was no surprise to see him ride for Irish Continental team Pezula in their heyday in 2007-08, despite being just 20 years of age.
He has improved every year – bar this year.
“I feel I’ve a lot to prove, some local people are even saying to me I’ll never make the level I made in 2012 but I know I can. This year was a blip. I can certainly get back there and the motivation is the key thing, for me.
“The main thing for me next year is to go back and perform at the Rás. I think if you’re an Irish rider that’s the big one and if you look at what I was capable of in 2012, certainly I can look at getting close to a stage win. It’s going to be hard but it’s possible with a bit of luck. But beyond that I want to look at the Tour of Ulster, and the Shay Elliott and the Des Hanlon.”
His best result in the 2012 Rás was 3rd in the stage into Killybegs and he believes it’s possible to improve on that.
“You need luck but it is certainly possible to win. Everything has to go right because you’re going to get to the end of the stage with no teammates. That’s a fact. Realistically you don’t have that many matches to burn during a stage so you need to choose when to make your attack as well.”
“I still think that kind of performance in me but this year was just a write-off. Nothing went right at all for me. The year started off badly and I don’t think I ever sort of mentally got myself to a stage where I was going to try to recover from it. It was physical and mental; but I definitely can get back to the level I was at in 2012.”
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