By Shane Stokes
Daire Feeley was the virtual race leader for much of Sunday’s final stage of the Rás Tailteann, and was also in an attacking mood after it. Feeley went up the road very early on the final stage and looked at one point like he was on course to the second Rás win of his career.
However, towards the end, his group lost momentum and was recaptured, something he suggested was down to riders not contributing. He wasn’t impressed, and let fly about them in a post-race interview with stickybottle.
“I’d be happy for you to say this in the article that I learned a lot about people,” he said. “You see a lot of smiles before the race, people who you think you are on your side. But once we got in the break, I realised who was my actual friend. The only person who gave me an actual turn was Tom Martin, and I’m happy to call him my friend.
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“A lot of Irish lads have burnt any favour they’re ever going to get from me. So if they’re racing me from here on in, they’re not getting any turn from me.”
Martin was racing with the UK Wheelbase Cabtech Castelli team. Feeley was complementary about others who travelled across the Irish sea for the race, and less so about his own compatriots in the day’s move.
“I didn’t know if lads were just dead, had dead legs or whatever it was, but there was times there where I said to myself, are these boys here riding the Ring of Kerry or are they actually riding the Rás? Because the way that some lads rode was just very poor.
“I’ve got to hand it to the English lads. They ride hard. I question my Irish counterparts, in terms of what they’re made of after today. But look, I learned a lot about them, which I can use going forward to win more races.”
'I had consistent legs all week. I really nailed the basics'
Feeley was part of the day’s big break on stage two and was one of 20 riders to gain more than three minutes on the rest of the field. He was up the road again on the following day, going clear approximately 20km after the start in Cong, but things came back together before the finish.
He was sixth overall going into the penultimate stage and remained in that position, but did lose another 12 seconds when he missed the move by Dean Harvey, Jamie Meehan (both Team Ireland) and George Kimber (Isle of Man Cycling Club) on the category one Wolftrap climb.
That saw him start stage five 32 seconds back, a deficit he overcame when he was clear as part of a 14-man move.
“I was virtual yellow on the road all day. As I said to one of the race media crew this morning, I’m here to race. And I did exactly that. I went from the gun, and I spent the guts of 130 kilometres, 140 kilometres even, in the breakaway.
"I was the virtual yellow for most of the day. It’s just such a pity to be so close and to be caught in the final couple percent of the race.
“But look, it is what it is. I’m very happy with my efforts. I can say that I gave my all. We’ll be back again. It’s a very hard race to win, as we’ve just witnessed.”
Feeley did much of the driving at the front, tucked low and narrow on his bike and cutting into the wind. Dillon Corkery won the race with a final stage attack two years ago, and Feeley was clearly trying to do the same thing.
Kimber was in yellow and admitted to stickybottle that he thought the win was slipping away from him.
“I thought the race was gone, but I just stuck in there and it came back,” he said. “I had to let a move go early and one GC guy in there isn’t the end of the world. There was probably always going to be one, but he (Feeley) is not the ideal guy to have in there because he’s so strong.”
Feeley said his GC performance came down to getting things right.
“I had consistent legs all week. I really nailed the basics, especially the nutrition side of things. I had a plan going into the race in terms of exactly what I had to do on the bike, off the bike, from a recovery standpoint.
“I had everything laid out, and I stuck with the plan and it rewarded me with good legs. So I’m happy with that. I learned about a lot about myself this week. The legs were good, but I just didn’t have enough in the tank to win the overall, unfortunately.”
‘I proved a point to a lot of people today'
Kimber’s win on stage four saw him take over at the top from Odhrán Doogan (Cycling Ulster). Jamie Meehan finished second to Kimber and ended the day second in GC, and best of the home riders.
Feeley was critical of the Irish tactics, both on that stage and the final day.
“Dean Harvey was very good to me. Unfortunately he wasn’t able to ride,” he said, speaking of Harvey’s presence in the break on stage five and the instructions from the team car.
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“The Irish team didn’t deserve the results they got, based off the way they rode. If they did right, I could have capitalised on it, and they would have got rewarded for it, possibly a stage win.”
However Harvey started the day 4:52 back, with Meehan the only rider left in contention for the overall.
Stickybottle put it to Feeley that the only card Team Ireland could play was to get Meehan up the road, rather than for Harvey to help Feeley win and possibly take the stage.
“I do accept that, yeah,” he agreed. “I suppose reflecting on yesterday’s result, they threw it away yesterday.
“But look, I don’t question any team’s tactics. I vent my frustration at them. Looking at it from the outside, they could do things better. But all I can do is ride my own race, and whatever happens around that happens.”
He didn’t win overall, but he finished fourth and went out fighting. That gave him satisfaction, and so too the message he felt it sent out.
“I’m happy I gave my all. I proved a point to a lot of people today. I’ve got a lot of hassle from people over the past couple of months, especially around changing clubs. This is a nice two fingers to say, 'Up yours'. I ride with my legs.
“And I’m not smoke and mirrors. I race honestly and that’s it.”
‘At the beginning, recovery went out the window'
Feeley is now 28 years of age. His 2022 Rás win was the highlight of his racing career thus far and he very much wanted to win the race again.
However things were more complicated than three years ago due to him becoming a new father. His partner Olivia and son Liam were at the race, giving him support and encouragement. The change has been something he has had to adapt to.
“I was saying to the organisers earlier on that I’m expecting my jersey for first daddy,” he told stickybottle in Miltown Malbay on Friday afternoon, following stage three. “It’s a big change.
“Thankfully Olivia is brilliant. She just doesn’t have one baby in Liam. She has two in Daire as well, trying to mind him as well, and making sure that he’s doing his training. But it’s not too bad.
"At the beginning recovery went out the window. I remember the first night when we brought him home from the hospital, I was saying, ‘okay, this cycling game isn’t going to work.’ But like a long winter of training, you just have to stick with it. And thankfully, we did.”
Still, speaking on Sunday after the race finish, he admitted that all the change did have an effect.
“I didn’t have the work that I wanted to do, but I stuck with it. It would have been very easy to throw the towel in and just have the excuse that I have a baby at home, like most lads do, but I stuck with it.
“I just thank my missus Olivia for keeping the belief in me in the hard times when recovery was going out the window, and when my world felt like it was falling apart on the bike.
“Obviously, I wouldn’t change the life that I have. With baby Liam there, it’s the most amazing feeling.
“But when you’re so hungry to do well on the bike, there’s always that feeling there that you’re missing out on something when you can’t do everything that you were able to do previously. Like, in 2022 I was just riding the bike and I did not have to worry about anything other than myself.”
Still, there is a bigger picture and he acknowledges that.
“Liam comes before the bike. It’s the best thing ever when you see him at the finish and he’s there smiling. So it’s always a nice pleasant feeling, so it is.”
Feeley hopes to return in future years with more straightforward preparation and to win the Rás again. In the meantime, he says he will remain hungry as the rest of the 2025 season unfolds.
“I just want to win races. That’s what I like doing. I love even a Sunday race where you can turn up, pin on the numbers and just knock the living life out of each other, around Bohermeen or down the country somewhere.
“That’s what this is about. We are in a highly privileged position to be able to do that. To just push our bodies to the limit, because we see people there around the world who just aren’t in a position to do what we can do due to circumstances beyond their control.
“You’ve got to be able to savour every moment of the sport that you can, because it is one of a kind.”
