Leader of the general classification, Belfast's Peter Hawkins (IG Sigma Sport) celebrates after stage 2 of today's An Post Rás from Longford to Nenagh. He feels today's splits were decisive. (Photo: Paul Mohan - Sportsfile)
By Gerard Cromwell
In Nenagh
With a 10-man breakaway group tearing free of the main peloton in the finale of stage two of the An Post Rás today and building up a 46 second lead by the line, the final kilometres were always going to be a tactical affair.
With two men each in the lead group, both the Belgian national team and the An Post-Chainreaction outfit were confident of pulling off a win if the stage came down to a sprint while the others knew they had to escape again to have any chance of victory.
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“When the big group of about 30 riders came together with about 30km to go, I knew it was going to split again,” said fourth placed Peter Hawkins, who inherited Conor Dunne’s yellow jersey after the stage. It is the Belfast man’s first Rás yellow jersey and is arguably the high point of his career to date.
“It was too big to roll to the finish like that so I just kept my eyes open,” he said the near bunch-sized group that formed.
“Archbold was in front and I just got across with Marcin and Sam Bennett and a couple of other guys came up and we basically just rode for time. I knew there were strong sprinters there. Marcin is strong and the Belgian track team were there and Archbold and Bennett. So to get the stage was going to be hard in a sprint. I got away with Marcin and (Connor) McConvey coming to the finish but it came together again.”
He was delighted to have taken the lead.
“I’m over the moon. It wasn’t really the plan this morning but the race just whittled down a lot. I had a feeling today would be quite selective. These days might look like nothing on the programme but they can end up being decisive and I think today has had a pretty big impact on the GC. I think there are some guys out of contention and that it’s; they’re not going to be back in contention.”
“It’s maybe a bit early in the week to think about defending it but with the legs I have, I think winning the whole thing is possible. I’m not sure if this makes it easier or harder but it’s brilliant to be the second Irish rider in yellow.”
Having won the first An Post sprint in Ballygar after 50km and been away in various groups throughout the day, Bennett however was having none of the late escape acts and set about giving Archbold an armchair ride to the line.
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“We got into the group with about 20km to go and we rode hard,” said the Waterford sprinter afterwards.
“I’d been away a few times and even though I recovered a bit I wasn’t feeling great coming to the finish and I knew Shane was good, so I told him I’d lead him out. I went to the front for the last kilometre and left him on the front with 200m to go and he won. It’s great for the team to get a stage win here, in our home race.”
Archbold easily beat Bialablocki and Belgian Jasper de Buyst to the line for his first ever Rás stage win but neither of them was too impressed at the end.
“I’m not the best sprinter, but I’m quite fast,” said a disgruntled Bialablocki afterwards.
“I attacked twice but An Post had two guys and Belgium had two guys, so they brought me back. In the sprint, the An Post guy wasn’t in a straight line. I was behind the Belgian guy and Archbold, he went to the right and put him in the barriers. I had to brake and go again on the left. I think if this didn’t happen I could have won; second is okay but I’m not happy."
De Buyst, however at least had the consolation of taking over as best U23 rider to dull the pain of missing out on a stage win.
“I was really confident in winning the sprint,” said the Topsport Vlaanderen pro who rides both track and road for the national team.
“I was there with my teammate in the last kilometre, Kenny de Ketele. But he was a bit tired in the end. I went for it at 250m to go but Archbold took me into the barriers just enough so I had to brake and then it was over. I think we showed today that we can win stages.”
“We had two riders in the break of 11 but I think we can also go for the GC now with two riders in the top 15. We came here for a good result. We’ll figure something out in the next few days.”
Despite having won the green jersey for New Zealand in 2011, Archbold had never won a Rás stage until today and was understandably happy.
“I’ve been second here three times, I’ve had a third, I’ve won the green jersey, but never won a stage before so to get a stage for An Post is fantastic. Sam Bennett did a phenomenal job leading out a non-Irishman to win a stage. I’m 90pc Irish today. I can’t thank him enough.”
“We rode a good stage together. We were disappointed yesterday but we’re happy now. We’re here for stages. It’s a long tour to try and win from this far out so stages are all we want until four or five days time. We’ll see how we go after that.”
