Having led the Eroica Juniores-Nations' Cup in Italy from until the final of the last stage, Patrick Casey has reflected on a "frustrating" effort to try and win the race outright. He came under an onslaught of attacks, with Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale U19 Team also inexplicably going missing when the chips were down despite staring the day all guns blazing.
In the end, after being forced into a lot of the chasing himself - as he was down to just one team for the final day - Casey (GRENKE-Auto Eder) saw his chance of winning overall slip away when a couple of GC dangermen went in a breakaway on a valley road.
And though he fought well, and lost out by just six seconds, to eventually finish 3rd overall, he said it "was quite frustrating given the way it happened in the end". That fifth and final stage - 102km from Siena to Chiusdino - featured 1,600 metres of climb, with a 7km climb, averaging four per cent gradient to the line.
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"It wasn't a massively difficult course, but it was one of those that if you wanted to blow it up, you really could," Casey told stickybottle. "It's a stage where we'd see some quite big time gaps last year so it wasn't a done deal that I was going to keep the jersey and it definitely wasn't going to be a bunch finish."
Casey went into the final stage with 31 seconds in hand over a trio of Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale U19 Team riders; Aubin Sparfel, Valentin Martinet and Paul Seixas.
"Obviously, that wasn't an easy position to be in, there was quite a lot of 1-2-3, just rolling attacks, trying to sneak in breakaways. And I'm leaning quite heavily on the Dutch (national) team, the Norwegian team, the Belgian team, and French, to close these down a few times.
"And then on a few occasions it fell to me alone, on a valley road with 30 or 40 second efforts to sprint across to these groups. At the time, I was doing it quite capably, but towards the end of the race they were efforts that built up and I definitely began to feel it."
After the initial attacks - especially the repeated efforts by Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale U19 Team - the French trade team riders then switched tactics. They waited for every rise in the road and squeeze the pedals, especially Seixas, who is regarded as one of the very best junior climbers in the world at present.
"They were just going absolutely ballistic up these climbs," Casey said. "I was really suffering holding the wheel. But I kept with the leaders and managed to achieve my initial objective of staying with the AG2R guys."
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Just after 80km into the stage, the riders entered the finishing circuit halfway up the 7km climb. As they passed through the line of the first time, there was about 20-30 riders left in the bunch, with a breakaway group then going on the valley road.
And in that breakaway were Héctor Álvarez (Spain) and Ruud Junior Nagengast (Netherlands) who had started the stage just 43 and 46 seconds down on Casey overall.
Casey said his only team mate left in the race, Anatol Friedl, "did everything he could for me on that last day".
"But, unfortunately, it was more a case of limiting our losses than preventing us from losing anything in the first place," the Irish junior said. "And then Anatol was forced to pull in this 10k valley against seven guys up the road.
"And AG2R weren't represented in the breakaway at all, and for some reason they just didn't work. Obviously it was me losing the lead, but those guys were kissing away any chance of a podium… when they had five guys in what was basically a full-on peloton now because it all regrouped.
"Everyone looked at me and my one team mate to chase this breakaway of seven committed guys. It was really bizarre tactics, and by their own admission afterwards when I spoke to their directeurs. It was a total tactical error from them.
"From there we did what we could; we never stopped trying. We fought to the line, we fought hard. On that last climb again, after those efforts I had made earlier, I was really hanging on. But again, I managed it, I stayed with the lead group (from the peloton) to the line.
"We picked up speed on the last climb, as it always does. So I managed to hold onto 3rd, but just two seconds off 2nd place and six seconds off the win. So with a single team mate… it's quite a painful result.
"But at least I have the podium as a consolation prize. And a few stages in the race was also nice but it's really infuriating, especially given the circumstances within the team, having lost so many guys so early, quite frustrating."
While the remains of the peloton gained time on the breakaway in the final, they did just enough to take the spoils. Álvarez of Spain took overall victory from breakaway companion, Nagengast of the Netherlands, with just two seconds separating them after the five stages of racing. Casey was then in 3rd place overall, just six downs down on overall winner Álvarez.
