Jamie Meehan on the front of the breakaway during Sunday's final stage in Hungary, though his weekend was hit again and again by setbacks (Photo: Luis Angel Gomez-Cor Vos)
Jamie Meehan (Cofidis) went into Tour de Hongrie (2.Pro) last week as many people's tip for a strong ride, perhaps his first general classification podium. But he told stickybottle he was left frustrated at how the race had gone, even up to the conclusion yesterday, Sunday.
Not only was his general classification bid hampered by a crash on Saturday's queen stage, it was followed by a series of small setbacks wiping out his effort to rescue things. And even his breakaway ride on yesterday's final stage was scuppered by further mishap.
"I was really disappointed with the week, to be honest," Meehan (22) told stickybottle of eventually finishing 33rd overall, some 5:36 down on overall winner Jakob Söderqvist (Lidl-Trek).
"I came, really, looking to do a good GC result but I crashed (on Saturday) on the descent. I went to the back of the group at the top of the climb to get gloves, and saw it was splitting on the descent.
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"I made my way past half the front group, but crashed just as I closed the gaps to the very front. I was chasing back on with (Luke) Plapp only for someone to let the wheel go.
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"Plapp and a few others got back on, but the rest of us didn’t," he added of the Australian riding with Team Jayco AlUla who went on to finish 3rd on the stage and move up to 3rd overall, where he remained on the final GC.
"With the crash, the earpiece came out too, and I couldn’t get it back in. So I never heard they cut a lap off (the finishing circuit) until I crossed the line," Meehan added of the severe weather protocol shortening the stage.
The Irishman, in his neo pro season, then got up the road on yesterday's final stage of 147km to Veszprém. Though he said he was determined to show himself, his luck was out again, even though he spent 100km on the attack.
"I wanted to bounce back, to get onto the front splits for the echelon. And I managed to do that. But then chain came off and got bent so had to change bike. A lot went wrong, but we move onto the next."
Meehan took 3rd on a stage on debut for Cofidis last August at Tour de l'Ain (2.1), followed by 10th on a climbing stage at AlUla Tour (2.Pro) in January, while finishing 17th overall at Tour de la Provence (2.1) in February.
The Donegal man told stickybottle earlier in the season that some of the smaller stage races may be where he could take results for himself this season. Last week was one such chance but, unfortunately it wasn't to be.
