Dean Harvey has expressed his disappointment at losing his stage win and overall victory at Kerry Group Rás Mumhan yesterday, telling stickybottle he believed he did nothing wrong.
The Trinity Racing rider, who was competing for Cycling Ulster at the weekend, was relegated - and given a two-minute time penalty - after the commissaires decided he had drafted for too long behind his team car when getting back to the breakaway after a double puncture.
Harvey said he believed what he did happens in every bike race, saying the time penalty especially was not necessary. But he also believed he would move on quickly, though he was disappointed for his team mates given how hard they had worked for him to win.
"It was a bit of a letdown, especially after the way it went - it went perfectly to win the race," he said of crossing the line 1st to take the stage and five-second time bonus, meaning he would have taken the final yellow jersey by just one second. "But then to go the way it did… it wasn't nice. I'm mainly disappointed for the team because they rode really well for me all weekend, especially on that last stage. So they deserved it as much as I did.
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"I think what we did is something that happens in every bike race and there's no penalties. But when it happens at the front of a race, and it has an effect on the GC and stage (outcome), you can sort of see why they did it. But I don't think they needed the penalty. And I don't think we did anything wrong."
The 19-year-old, who enjoyed a brilliant season last year and then moved up to Andrew McQuaid's Trinity Racing at the start of this season, said he would digest what happen and move on immediately with no fuss.
"I think I can handle it pretty well, I've definitely got bigger things to think about," he confirmed. "So I'll be able to move on pretty quickly and in the long term it won't have much meaning for me."
He added he was feeling great in Kerry at the weekend, adding once he began the opening stage he could feel he was in some great form, which continued through the four stages.
On yesterday's final stage, when the riders moved on to the final 4.1km circuits in Killorglin, Seth Dunwoody (Cycling Ireland Junior) and Matthew Warhurst (ROKit SRCT) were already up the road. With about three laps, of 10, completed, Harvey got clear in a six-man chase group. Yellow jersey Finn Crockett (Spokes Racing Team), whom Harvey trailed by just four seconds going into the stage, was also in the group.
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"With about four laps to go I got the punctures," he explained of puncturing back and front at the same time, even though he didn't hit a hole or anything else in the road. "I did about half a lap on the punctures, I had to get the team car up and change bikes. And then about half a lap later I was able to get brought back to the group."
He then sprinted in to win from the eight-man group, though was relegated to 8th and penalised two minutes. That meant Crockett - who rode a great race all weekend - retained yellow to win overall and Warhurst was upgraded from 2nd to stage winner, with Dunwoody 2nd on the stage.
Ewan Warren (Caldwell Cycles), who was 3rd overall going into the final day of action, was bumped up to 2nd overall and also won the young rider classification. However, had Harvey not been penalised, Warren still would have finished 3rd overall; a big result.
Reflecting on the weekend of racing, Harvey had plenty to be happy with. On stage 2 he made the winning breakaway with Crockett and Warren and while Jenson Young (ROKit SRCT) started the breakaway, he was later dropped.
"On that second stage, I knew I'd be able to do damage on that cat 1 climb," said Harvey of Ballaghasheen Pass. "I just pushed up it and it was four of us away after that.
"We had a 20-second gap initially and I thought there was no chance we'd stay away. But we all committed and rode well and then the gap went up to near a minute. It went up and down from there but once we got to the circuit it was still about a minute, and I knew that was it for GC really."
He finished 2nd to Crockett on that stage, with Ewan 3rd. The following day, Sunday, stage 3 finished on the Kerryman's Table climb, though Harvey tried several times before that last ascent to try and get clear of Crockett.
"I knew my best chance on that stage was on the climbs," he said. "So on the first cat 1 climb I really went all in. And it was just me and Finn (Crockett) over the top, but obviously then he wouldn't work with me so I just had to sit up.
"Then I waited for the last climb and tried again. But I couldn't get away from (Crockett). And even though a few other people got away I wasn't too worried about them, I was just focusing on GC."
Looking ahead, he said his next race with Trinity Racing was the Rutland-Melton International CiCLE Classic on Sunday week. He now intended to focus on that. "I think that's one I can look for a result in, so that will be good," he said. "In the bigger picture, my main goal for the season is the Worlds."
