By Shane Stokes
Matthew Teggart justified the pre-race confidence he had shown on the eve of the Rás Tailteann, thundering to stage success on Wednesday’s opening stage of the race.
Riding for Cycling Ulster, he was left celebrating the second stage win of his career plus his second stint in the yellow jersey.
“I am obviously delighted to take stage one and the first yellow jersey,” he said at the finish. “It might be a bit early for the yellow jersey, mind you, but I’m absolutely delighted with that.
“Usually that’s not the sort of finish for me, a really, really fast, flat bunch sprint. But I just timed it really well, I left it late with the headwind. I was coming at them with speed and I just about got there.
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“I think it was a photo finish between my teammate Rory [Townsend] and I know how quick he is, so I am delighted with that. The day in general was just very nervous, nothing really sticking. Very fast and grippy day, as such. Very hard roads and quite warm as well. So I think I just had a wee bit more legs than most at the end and that made the difference.”
The 26 year old has had a very strong season to date and is going from success to success. He won the first three rounds of Cycling Ireland’s National Road Series, took the Noel Teggart Memorial on Sunday and has also taken top five stage finishes on stage two of the 2.1-ranked Tour of Antalya and in the recent Paris-Troyes.
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He said that a combination of good legs, good luck and good timing lay behind his latest success.
“I think a finish like that is just all about timing and luck, really. It is just really if the door opens for you, if you know what I mean. It was absolutely carnage in the last ten kilometres there, just like a washing machine in the bunch.
"I knew with the headwind to leave it late… I had to leave it late, so I sat back and tried to wait and wait, and finally the door did open on the right hand side for me. So I kicked hard. But it the door hadn’t opened, I would have come 15th or 20th. So it is just about timing, I think, a sprint like that.”
Teggart’s last participation in the Rás was in 2017. On that occasion he won stage three and took over the yellow jersey for a day after stage four. Five years on from that, how does it feel to be repeating those achievements?
“It feels really good, actually. It feels really good,” he answered. “It is such a special race, obviously, so to now have two stage wins to my name and to be in yellow again for an Irishman is very special. So I am really pleased.”
This year’s Rás Tailteann is three days shorter than the previous eight, making it theoretically more straightforward to try to retain yellow. However it is still very early on and Teggart said that he wasn’t sure what approach they would take.
“I will sit down with the team and see what the plan is,” he said. “I think it is too early to defend, especially with everyone on the same time.
“So I think we will just treat tomorrow as a one day race again, pretend I am not in yellow and see how that goes.”
