Damien Shaw gained time on Aquablue team mate Sean Lacey on Rás stage 7 today, Saturday, and has lifted the county rider classification leader's jersey from him as a result with just tomorrow's final stage in to Skerries to come (Photo: www.blackumbrella.ie)
Having enjoyed a very strong ride in the An Post Rás with just one stage remaining, Aquablue’s Damien Shaw today lifted the county rider classification leader’s jersey from team mate Sean Lacey.
Both had picked up the county rider prize along the way – Shaw when he was 4th over the line into Charleville on Tuesday’s stage 3 and Lacey on stage 2 into Lisdoonvarna – though Lacey missed the boat Shaw powered his way into today and so the baton changes hands.
But Lacey insisted the important thing was that the jersey stayed within the team.
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“I was fairly confident that if I was to lose it, it would be going to Damien,” Lacey told stickybottle.
“It didn’t bother me in the slightest. We would be more annoyed if it didn’t stay in the team but thankfully Damien was there to take it.”
Lacey said he simply did not get into the yellow jersey group of 35 riders that formed at 80km after the two cat 1 climbs, and so lost his time.
“They were obviously 35 very good climbers there and I was in the next group after that. The group I was in, when we got off Mount Leinster people probably weren’t overly interested in trying to ride hard. You were kind of caught then really.”
For Shaw, who has put up a fantastic performance all week, his day may have panned out up the road but for rotten luck at the worst time possible; puncturing as he was within touching distance of the back of the seven escapees not long after they had taken flight
Third in the national championships last year and riding in his second Rás aged 29 years, he said when he attacked after the breakaway it had just become established a few kilometres earlier and had a gap of around 40 seconds.
However, no sooner had he made his move at the 25km marker and begun to close the gap that he realised he had a slow puncture.
“I made it to within around five or 10 seconds of them. When I was going over I was calling neutral service just to get the wheel change."
When he got a change, the advantage he had built on the bunch on his way up to the seven leaders evaporated and he ended up back in the peloton.
Sean Lacey has finally won the county rider prize on a stage in the Rás; on the podium in Lisdoonvarna (Photo: www.blackumbrella.ie)
While disappointed to have punctured just when it looked like he had caught what proved to be the winning breakaway, he said he did not feel overly annoyed.
“I’ve had a good week. I’ve been in a few breaks, I’ve been aggressive so you can't get too annoyed.”
He said riding the race for the first time last year, coupled with his obvious form to date this season, had helped him this week.
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“What you really notice is the strength that some of the teams have; teams of four and five lining it out. And to get in on their line-out is probably one of the more important things to do.
"If you have a team yourself they need to do it. But when you are in a bunch of three or four others they’ll just shove you out of the way. But once the bunch is racing I have been able to react; to go across (gaps) with the best of them.”
Today, Shaw said the 30km of racing to the top of the second cat 1 climb of Mount Leinster was the decisive section of the race where the field split most.
With the break of seven away and the yellow jersey, points leader and a handful of other strong men having pulled clear of the shattered peloton by the top of Mount Leinster, Shaw was in the next group on the road.
They caught the yellow jersey to become the large second group. And it was Shaw's ability to get into that while team mate Sean Lacey, who was leading the county rider classification by 43 seconds from Shaw this morning, was back the road a little that saw the Mullingar man take that lead from Kerry’s Lacey.
“I was happy enough in that group and I felt we would get back on (to the yellow jersey),” said Shaw.
“And we did that around 5km after the descent,” he added of coming off Mount Leinster.
Shaw receives his county rider prize at the end of stage 3 into Cahirciveen; 4th over the line, he felt he was worth a podium finish (Photo: Ramsey Cardy)
In the end, the group of 36 he was in came home some 1:28 down on the stage winner Liam Holohan (Madison Genesis) and were just four seconds off the back markers of the break, which fell apart on the run-in to the finish.
There were only seven other Irish men, five of them county riders, in that group with Shaw. They were: Anthony Murray (Subaru Australia), Eoin McCarty (VisitNenagh.ie), Mark Dowling (DID Dunboyne) who won the county prize again today, Sean Downey (An Post-Chainreaction), a real revelation of this Rás Michael Barry (Louth South), Chris Reilly (Louth South) and Connor McConvey (Synergy Baku).
On the basis of today’s ride, Shaw now leads the hugely impressive Barry in the county rider general classification by 3:31, with Dowling third at 6:02. Lacey has slipped to 6th place.
Shaw said coming into the race his Aquablue team was targeting the county team prize and the county rider prize. He felt between himself, Lacey and Bryan McCrystal, who was forced out after crashing on stage 5, they had a good chance.
However, Shaw was also hoping to make a visit of some description to the podium outside the county rider prizes. And he very nearly did that when he came 4th from the breakaway on stage 3 into Charleville.
Rubbing salt into his wounds on that day was the feeling that the men who filled 2nd and 3rd could have done a lot more on the road to contribute to the breakaway.
“A podium would have been fair, to get up on your own merits rather than being a county rider; that would have been nice.
“Last year I was just about getting into the top 20 and I couldn’t have done as well this year without knowing the run of it from last year. So I would really like to step it up again next year. I’m 29 now; there’s still time.
“For the realistic future, this is the hardest racing I am going to be doing it. So it’s good to have it as your goal and give it your best shot.”
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