No longer a full-time bike rider, Ronan McLaughlin went on the attack during Rás stage 4 yesterday and believes county men need to have the right frame of mind and hope to be lucky (Photo with thanks to Ger Cusack)
By Shane Stokes
Having previously gone close to a stage win in 2012 while a member of the An Post team, Ronan McLaughlin threw down the gauntlet again on Wednesday’s fourth stage of the race.
He was one of the most aggressive on the roads between Bearna and Newport and ended up with the best county rider award.
The Cork Aquablue rider unleashed multiple attacks and while several of his moves were brought back, he persisted and got clear of a larger breakaway group just after 90 kilometres into the stage.
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The Donegal rider combined with Dutchman Jimmy Janssens (Team 3M) and eked out a lead of almost two minutes in the remote, wind-blasted terrain.
“I don’t know if I was the most aggressive or not but certainly that is the only way you can ride a stage like that,” he told stickybottle at the finish.
“If you look at the profile like we did last night, you know after 22 kilometres you are going to be coming into a crosswind section and it is going to be very, very hard from the start.
“I was looking around the start and you see that big teams didn’t really want to ride. So obviously they were planning an attack in the crosswind. I just made sure I was in a good position.”
McLaughlin competed as part of the An Post team between 2008 and the end of 2013, then left the squad and spent time back in Ireland and also in London.
He was reunited with the team in the crosswinds on Wednesday and said that it echoed his previous racing with the squad.
On the podium in Newport yesterday afternoon being presented with his county rider prize by well known race organiser in Ireland Alice Sherratt.
“It was kind of like the good old days,” he said.
“After about 30 kilometres it was me and five An Post riders. So I was thinking I am wearing the wrong jersey here! But it was good.
“Then when it calmed down, it was always going to kick off again. So I just wanted to be ahead of all the chaos and get up the road a bit.”
While he and Janssens built a two minute lead, he said that he didn’t get too optimistic about the two of them fending off the chase behind.
“You were never going to ride to the finish but at least when a group came across there was only 14 left,” he said, speaking of his eventual 16th on the stage.
“The county rider prize is obviously a big one for this team, so coming in the road I was fairly sure that was secured. I was happy enough with that.”
McLaughlin was a full time bike rider while with the An Post team but is no longer in that position.
He works and also runs a coaching service, with the latter further eating into this time.
He said that it has been difficult to get himself into the sort of shape he wanted, but he was satisfied with what he did on stage four.
“I don’t want to make the excuse of coming from work, but I will just say that having not done much training, to still be there coming into the closing stages… I am quite proud of that.
“Although I didn’t get top ten or anything, I am still very happy with how the stage went.”
Just before the start of the Rás on Sunday with the Cork-Aquablue squad. From left to right: Sean McKenna, Ronan McLaughlin, Cathal Moynihan, Anto Walsh and Sean Lacey (Photo: Sean Rowe)
Caught 35 kilometres from the end of the stage, his chance of going for the victory became much more complicated then.
However he said that he realised it would be very difficult given the quality of the field, and that he had another goal in mind.
“There are a lot of strong, strong riders here. If you look at An Post they have got two ex WorldTour riders.
“They have a world champion, they have got a guy who probably could have been world champion or should have been world champion, and then one of the strongest Irish riders,” he said, referring in turn to Aidis Kruopis, Josh Edmondson, Aaron Gates, Ryan Mullen and Conor Dunne.
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“Then you look at international teams. On such a hard stage I didn’t expect to be competing for the stage.
“So I just took what I could, got up the road and made sure I was still there coming into the line to get the county rider.
“That was the goal for the day so I can’t complain.”
McLaughlin conceded twelve minutes on the opening stage and ‘the guts of a minute’ on day two.
He said as a result the chances of doing anything in the overall standings went out the window.
McLaughlin in the climbers' jersey at the Tour of Ulster a few weeks ago. He very nearly won the race overall (Photo: Source Studio)
That doesn't deter him, though.
“I enjoyed what I did today, so it is just getting stuck in and suffering like hell,” he said.
“I will try to do a bit more suffering and see how it goes.”
While he pointed out that he is fitting in training around work commitments, he also refuses to rule out the thoughts of taking a long-awaited stage win.
“It is never beyond anybody,” he said.
“If you look at the Giro yesterday, it was beyond the five guys in the break to stay away.
“One guy punctured and the other four stayed away with one winning a stage.
“Nothing is ever beyond anybody. The goal was always a stage win.
“If the stars had aligned today, the only county rider in the break, you attack with one kilometre to go, the chances are the big teams look at each other and you could sneak away for a stage win.
“So never say never. It is not likely, but the goal starting each stage will always be to try to win this.
“If you start with that mentality, the results look after themselves anyway.”
Shattered after the end of stage 4 of the Rás in 2012 into Bundoran in his native Donegal; McLaughlin was away for most of the day on his own and was only caught by the leading group on the home straight.
Asked if he had targeted a particular stage of the remaining four as being suited to him, McLaughlin admitted that he hadn’t paid too much attention to the various different days of the race.
“To be honest,” he said, “I hadn’t decided to ride the Rás until three weeks ago, I hadn’t seen the route until a week ago and I hadn’t seen today’s stage until last night. So I don’t know.
“We will see – I will have a look at the route tonight. As far as I can remember, it is very similar to today. So I will obviously get stuck in again.”
He can take confidence from his stage four performance, seeing it as a sign that he can still take on the big guns.
He’s not racing or training at the same level as before, and so reminding himself of what he can do is invaluable for his motivation.
“Even when I started this morning, even though the plan was to be there, to watch the team who is going to smash it in the crosswinds, it is always in the back of the mind ‘do I still have it in the legs?’ he said.
“It is nice to prove – even to prove to myself - that I must have had some sort of talent or some sort of ability that I can still pull it off.
“I don’t know if I can do it again tomorrow, but at least to get up there on the podium was quite nice.”
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