By Shane Stokes
A season spent racing in Spain has brought Aaron Wade into the Rás Tailteann in fine form, with the 21 year old leading in the chasing group at the end of stage one for fifth place. Riding as part of the Team Ireland squad in the race, Wade crossed the line ten seconds behind stage winner Conor McGoldrick (UK Richardsons Trek DAS) and is an early leader in the best young rider competition.
However he said the stage was far from plain sailing, with a need to be vigilant early on coupled with a difficult period closer to the finish posing challenges along the way.
“It was pretty hot for the first hour, hour and a half,” he told stickybottle after the podium presentation, clad in the white jersey of best young rider. “It was just attack after attack. If you were in the first 20 you were just wasting energy, pretty much.
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"But you always had to take the chance to see if anything was going to go. The move didn’t go until late. I think we got 24 people away and we all worked pretty well together and grew the gap out pretty large before the climb. So we had a nice buffer for the climb.”
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Wade had to dig in inside the final hour of racing, both in the run up to Wolftrap Mountain and on the slopes of the climb itself.
“The legs were feeling a bit rough with maybe 40k, 30k to go,” he explained. “I got dropped on the climb, but the gap between me and the break didn't really grow too much. I managed to get back in on the descent.
"We worked well to try and bring back three guys who were away, but we didn't manage to get them back before the finish. But the time gap’s not too big. My legs did feel rough but they loosened up coming to the finish, and I had a nice sprint there.”
Wade showed his class last year with victory in the GP Christian Fenioux race in France, then a two-up sprint win against Matthew Teggart in the fifth and final round of the Cycling Ireland National Road Series in Banbridge.
Asked what his goals are for the week ahead, he said he has already ticked off one objective. “My goal was to get a jersey for one of the days and I’ve done that now. So I guess I’ll try and hold it.”
He is two seconds clear of British trio James Hartley, George Wood (both UK: Cycling Sheffield) and Jacob Smith (UK Wheelbase Cabtech Castelli) in that competition.
