Tour of Ulster dark horse rates his and his rivals' chances
Lindsay Watson has had a fine season so far with a string of podiums and one win at the Killinchy GP. The Powerhouse Sport man will ride for Cycling Ulster at the Tour of Ulster this weekend alongside Marc Potts, Ryan Reilly, Christopher McGlinchey and Angus Fyffe.
By Brian Canty
Lindsay Watson goes into the Amber Green Tour of Ulster this weekend as a bit of a dark horse.
He has enjoyed a very encouraging start to the season and was 5th overall in this race 12 months ago.
The Lisburn rider is coming into the weekend on the back of riding the Rutland-Melton Cicle Classic (1.2) in the UK last Sunday.
And he feels he can get up to challenge for a stage, at least.
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“I’m looking forward to it and fairly confident. I’ll hopefully be in the mix and enjoying the pointy end of things,” he said.
“The three stages look great, the weather’s looking okay. And we’re going into the race with a very strong Cycling Ulster team and experienced support.
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“Last weekend will stand to me. It was brilliant, probably one of the most enjoyable races I’ve been to.
“After watching last year’s coverage I knew this sort of race would excite me, given the terrain.
“I didn’t think it was going to be as rough as it was though, it was fairly mental in places.”
Watson came home after the race and did a 10-mile time-trial Tuesday night to tune him up for this weekend.
And he knows with a strong start-list he’ll need to be at the same level, or very close to where he was last year.
“Fifth overall was a great result but it was forgotten about pretty quickly. I was up there every day in the stages but nobody remembers that.
“Looking at the start-list for this year, a placing like 5th again would be great. But hands down I’d prefer a stage win.
“We’ve a strong team so I could end up sacrificing my own ambitions helping others. I don’t mind that, I enjoy the team aspect of stage racing.”
Asked who he believed could win: “There are a lot of guys in great shape at the minute.
“If you narrowed it down to five? Ronan McLaughlin, Marc Potts, Chris McGlinchey, David Watson and Eoin Morton. But anything can happen.”
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