The face of Namibian KOH leader Dan Craven at the finish today tells the story of a stage of carnage (Photo: Paul Mohan - Sportsfile)
After a crash-hit third stage on the An Post Ras, Gerard Cromwell sifts through the bodies at the finish and speaks to the survivors of an epic day destined for the annals of this great race.
“We should have had an easy day because we were up the front,” said Gabriel Howard at the end of stage three of the An Post Ras in Westport today, Tuesday. “But it turned out a very busy day the way the race went.”
Howard has been on the Ras for the past 50 years, first as a rider but now as driver of one of the neutral service vehicles. And the Meathman spent much of today’s stage into Westport attending to the mechanical problems of riders caught up in the many crashes that littered the stage through Connemara.
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“There were a lot of crashes,” he said.
“I don’t know if it’s the make-up of the roads over here or what but the same thing happened over 40 years ago in the Tour of Ireland when all but four riders crashed on this stage. There were groups all over the place today. All of the top men, bar the yellow jersey came down. My mechanic Sean Coakley knew a short cut and only for him we would never have got back into the cavalcade. It was carnage.”
All of the three main classification holders fell during the stage although King of the Mountains leader Dan Craven was unable to remember remounting and riding the last 40km to the finish.
“I’ve no idea where the blood is coming from,” he said as he looked at his shorts which had turned red from an open wound dripping off his cheek.
“I just need to get back to the hotel and work out what’s happening.”
Danish rider Jacob Nielsen (Blue Water Cycling), who was second on stage one and had begun the day in ninth place overall, was taken to hospital suffering a punctured lung and suspected broken ribs after going down in a separate spill on the way to Tourmakeady.
Timmy Barry (Carlow Dan Morrissey Speedy Spokes) was one of the many Irish riders that hit the deck in the wet conditions.
“I could do with two elbows and two knees. It’s very rare you do both sides but I managed it today,” said Barry, who crashed while leading the race in a three man break that earlier contained Eugene Moriarty of Meath Spin11.
“I just came down off the second climb, in the valley before the last one. On one of the sweeping bends my front wheel just went from under me in the rain. I hit the deck, the guy behind me rode into me and that was that. The roads over here just seem more slippy than anywhere else I've raced when they're wet.”
Having been dropped from the break a few kilometres earlier, Moriarty was surprised to see his fellow escapee on the ground shortly afterwards.
“I lost contact on the second climb,” he said.
“Timmy Barry put the boot down and I just couldn’t hold him. I tried to save my legs and wait for the group to come from behind. The roads were a bit greasy, a bit wet. There was a big crash at the front of the group and it took down a lot of the jerseys. Actually, most of the An Post team and the Sigma team were on the ground. It went to pieces after that because everybody was trying to get back up. A little bit further up the road, I saw Timmy Barry on the deck, it was mayhem.”
Last year’s overall winner Gediminas Bagdonas emerged from a ditch to rejoin the front of the race thanks to the help of his An Post team-mates, who drove a large group towards the finish in the final 40km. Race leader Pirmin Lang had to go off-road to avoid another crash and only caught the Bagdonas group in the final 15km.
“I had to turn into a field but I come from a cyclo cross background so it’s not a problem for me,” smiled the race leader at the finish.
“I’m happy to stay in yellow today after all the crashes. We got caught out and were a long way down but we worked hard and closed the gap with 10km to go, so I’m really happy to stay here and keep the yellow.”
In the end, Bagdonas had enough power to outsprint stage one winner Marcin Bialablocki (Node4 Giordana) and Dutchman Roy Efting (Koga Cycles) although he had to recalculate his sprint after putting his hands up a little too early in the gallop to the line.
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Apart from the loss of Nielsen, there was no real change to the overall classification, despite a hectic day in Connemara which saw Peter Hawkins (Sigma Sport) finish best of the Irish on the stage, in sixth place, with Adam Armstrong (Dublin Eurocycles) taking 10th spot and the county rider award for the second day in a row.
For our earlier race report click here
For full stage and classification results click here
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