Bryan McCrystal’s epic escape on stage two of the Rás brought back memories of 2009 when Corkman Stephen Barrett, above, did something similar.
Like McCrystal, Barrett spent much of the day out front only to be caught in the closing kilometers following a furious chase from the Rapha Condor team who were protecting the interests of the race leader, Simon Richardson.
Barrett rode in the colours of the national team that year and was in his debut Rás. He would later ride for the elite track squad at a number of World Cup events.
Here, he recalls his memories of that debut baptism of fire in 2009.
The Irish team for the Rás in 2009, where there was also an Irish development team in the race. Left to right: Paul Healion, Barrett, Sean Downey Martyn Irvine and David McCann. On the development team that year were Stephen Halpin, Ciaran Cassidy, Urban Monks, Aaron Buggle and Adam Armstrong.
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The 2009 edition of the Rás stands out as not only being my first time lining out in Dunboyne but also the fact it was my first time donning the green jersey of Ireland in a cycling race.
Naturally when riding for the national team at the Rás expectations were high.
But being relatively unknown and only been riding a bike for 12 months those expectations seemed to be much higher.
Luckily I had teammates like Paul Healion, David McCann and Martyn Irvine to guide me through the peaks and troughs of my first eight-day race.
The day before Barrett's day-long escape his teammate Paul Healion won a terrific stage six of the race into Castlebar.
I have two very distinct memories from that week looking back on it now.
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The first being Paul winning on Stage 6 into Castlebar and the second being the following day where I embarked on a 100+ kilometre solo breakaway.
I clearly remember asking McCann the night before how to get into a breakaway and he simply replied you will get this ‘feeling’ in the bunch when a break is likely to go.
I remember thinking that wasn’t going to be much help but little did I know I would get that ‘feeling’ the following day about 30km into the 150km stage from Castlebar to Clara.
Though Barrett was caught by the Rapha Condor-led bunch inside 10 kilometres to go on the run to Clara, his disappointment was tempered by the fact Sam Bennett won the stage.
I don’t remember a whole lot about that stage only trying to keep my power above 320 watts.
Our manager Tommy Evans occasionally came up to me in the car telling me what part of the road to ride on the give me the most protection from the wind.
I was caught by the bunch with about 8k to go but was delighted for Sam Bennett who went on to win that stage.
I went into that Rás fairly clueless about how to ride a long stage race but came out of it a much more confident and better-equipped rider thanks to the teammates and manager.
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