Daire Feeley (Burren CC) has told stickybottle he had suffered a recent bout of illness, forcing him off the bike for a week, though he now felt fresher for the rest and was climbing better than ever at Dornan Rás Mumhan.
He was 2nd on today's queen stage into Portmagee, moving him up to 3rd overall, saying of the soaking wet race, where he was clear from the 2km marker: "We were on it all day, it was f*cking full metal jacket".
He added was now determined to make the most of his general classification position, in a race he has never won and only took his first stage win at last year.
"Two weeks ago I couldn't ride out of my way after I got a dose," he said. "But I took six days off the bike and I feel as fresh as a daisy. I think it's standing to me. I'm fresh, I'm riding myself into the race. Tomorrow is a very important day. It's not as hard on paper (as today's queen stage), but it's a day that will potentially decide the GC.
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"The only major concern is that climb to the finish, Kerryman's Table, that's all I'm worried about. But the way I'm feeling, and the way I climbed today, I don't think it's going to be a problem.
"I just need to do the basics right; fueling well and not going mad early on, if I can avoid that. My climbing is a lot better than normal. I actually started back doing a lot of gym work and I'm responding really well to it. I've more grunt than I had previously. We'll keep it going, I've responded well to it.
"But it's going to be hard racing over the next few days. The yellow jersey (Jamie Whitcher) is very strong. Hopefully, if we play the cards right, fatigue might catch up with some riders. And that might play into my favour."
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Feeley said depending on how riders had to race tomorrow - either attacking or chasing attacks to defend a GC position - some key men might reach the final climb quite tired.
"Lads, when they're fatigued, are different riders, which is a good thing (for me). I think I have a very low drop off in my performance when I'm tired, so that might play to my favorite.
"But at the same time, we need to keep an eye out because the bunch today dropped the anchor at one point, and the break went. And if that happens with a break tomorrow that I'm not in, it's game over."
Today Robin Mould (Foran) attacked after about 2km, with Feeley going across to him. That duo persisted for the next 10-15km before six more caught them, creating the winning breakaway of the day.
Though their gap went out to close to two minutes after the first hour of racing, it later came down to just 10 seconds, with some of the breakaway losing their places and others getting across - including yellow jersey Jamie Whitcher (Composite Black).
About 10km from the finish, Feeley got away from the rest of the breakaway with Whitcher and Casper Rode (West Frisia). They went to the finish together, with Rode winning from Feeley and Whitcher. The rest of the breakaway came in between 24 and 29 seconds later, with the nearest chasers at 1:46.
Feeley is now up to 3rd place overall, with two stages remaining, and is 33 seconds off yellow, with the uphill finish on Kerryman's Table to come on Sunday.
