Robin Kelly has shed a lot of weight this season and that's allowed him get over the climbs he previously struggled with. It's all part of a grand plan to be able to have what he hopes can be his best An Post Rás yet (Photo: Sean Rowe)
Few would have given Robin Kelly any chance in a hilly race like the AmberGreen Energy Tour of Ulster last weekend but the Waterford Racing Team man almost pulled off a major upset when he went very close to winning it.
Kelly came to within 11 seconds of the pink jersey won by Mark Dowling (DID Electrical Dunboyne) and believes had the right mix of riders been in his group which contested the stage win he could have won overall.
“I should be really happy but I’m a small bit gutted,” he said ruefully.
Advertisement
“The right mix just wasn’t there. I only needed 30 seconds to win the race and Jack Watson (commissaire) had just come up in the car and told us we were 45 seconds clear.”
Those five leaders were Kelly, the Team ASEA pair of Damien Shaw and Roger Aiken, as well as Irish Development team duo Sean McKenna and Mark Downey.
Kelly was the highest overall, 31 seconds down on overnight leader Eoin Morton of UCD CC.
“Coming into the last 10k, McKenna says ‘we’ll keep it together and we have the stage between the four (five ed.) of us’ and I had no problem with that.
“But it got cagey and they started attacking so I was on my guard.
Kelly has been improving steadily of late and his runner-up to Simon Ryan (Mego Racing team) in the John Drumm Memorial in Co. Kerry recently was evidence of that. (Photo courtesy of John Coleman)
Related News
“I wasn’t aware of the situation with McKenna. I beat him by a couple of seconds in the time-trial, then he got fined 30 seconds.
"But I didn’t know he was appealing it or the result of it so I didn’t know how far he was actually behind me.
“I was thinking if I drove it all the way to the finish and he jumped me to get a couple of seconds and win it I’d be sick so I was in a bit of a mess.”
As it transpired, Aiken attacked going over the final rise and rode away for the stage, with the four others all watching Kelly behind.
“We were all a bit goosed,” recalled Kelly.
“They all looked at me to chase and I was saying ‘there’s two Irish guys here and they’ll surely want a stage’ but Aiken disappeared.
“In the last kilometre I drove it but it’s hard to know; looking back you think you should have done this or that, it all happened so fast.
“But overall I’m delighted. It’s a hilly race, I wouldn’t have been in that position before (so high on the general classification) but I always think what might have been.”
Topics
