By Shane Stokes
He’s led the race since the end of stage two, and has thoroughly relished his time in yellow. Dom Jackson isn’t just riding for the overall victory, but also for what he hopes is a bigger future in the sport.
“It would mean everything to win this race,” he told Stickybottle at the end of Saturday’s stage. “This is why I’ve been training so hard. I think this is potentially my last big shot at a cycling contract.
“I’m just an amateur rider, and I’m basically all in at this point. I kind of figured if someone would notice me, this is the race to do it.”
Jackson’s quality as a rider is underlined by the fact that he has only been racing for three years. Now 26, he previously competed in a completely different sport, and found cycling through injury.
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“I used to be a rower. I’ve been to various under 23 world champs for GB,” he explained. “And then I injured my back, so all the nerves down my right leg were affected. I couldn’t sit in a chair for 20 minutes and it was pretty bad.
“I basically took a year off sport, and then in Covid, during the lockdown when there was nothing else to do, I kind of managed to sit myself on a bike. I was like, ‘actually, if I kind of sit a bit funny at first, I can ride my bike.’ And that summer it was so sunny and I was just really loving it.”
That led him to ride for a local club Kingston Wheelers in London, which got in into racing. He was then picked up by Foran CT, and raced to seventh overall in last year’s Rás.
“I owe so much to like Tom Quaid and Paul Lavelle who manage Foran Construction. They’ve made all this possible for me, which is super special.
“So I’m all in to try and just do as well as I can. And it’s so great to have the whole team behind me, also with that same vision. I owe them a lot.”
Jackson has been locked on the same overall time as Conn McDunphy (USA: Skyline-Cadence) and Liam O’Brien (Team Ireland) since Thursday evening. That’s made things tense, but he is also thriving with yellow on his back and relishing the experience.
“It was a really hard day today. The moves that got away, some of them were actually really quite threatening. And it forced me and my teammates, and Skyline to work as well. It was interesting in that Team Ireland were willing to sacrifice their GC for a potential stage win. There is so much thinking behind it.
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“But in the heat of the moment, you don’t have time to think, you are just like, ‘I can’t let that go.’ So even if they’re not pulling, I have to try and do my best.
“It just gets to a point where you’re absolutely spent, and then you just got to keep going because I’m loving every minute in this jersey, and I want to keep it for as long as I can. It’s slowly killing me to do it, but I’m loving it. I’m absolutely loving it.”
Polite and affable, Jackson is quick to give credit to his rivals. One of Saturday’s big dangers was the defending champion Dillon Corkery, who got clear early on in a seven man move and who became race leader on the road. Jackson has been impressed by his performances.
“The thing about Dillon, he rides really well. You don’t even see him slip away,” he said. “It’s just like you don’t see him for a while, and then it’s only when get a time gap or some someone else in the bunch tells you that you’re like, ‘oh, actually Dillon’s up the road. This is like a real, real danger.’
“But he’s been riding really well all week. In fact, all Team Ireland have as well. It’s awesome.”
Jackson is well aware of last year’s race, when Conor McGoldrick (UK: Richardsons Trek DAS) was deposed on the final day. He saw that unfold and will use that as further motivation on Sunday.
“I know exactly how gutted he was on that last day when he had been in yellow all week and it got snatched from him,” he said. “So I’ve not settled, in my head it is everyone’s jersey and as a team, we’ve got to really ride to defend it.
“But you’d way rather have it and be defending it than not have it and trying to get it. It’s a tough one, but we’ll see.”
What makes things all the more tense is that he doesn’t just have to manage the attacks of those closest to him. With the top three separated only by accumulated stage placings, it could all come down to their finishing order in any sprint.
Things couldn’t be any tighter than they are.
“If it does come down to a bunch sprint, then I just have to really try everything to get myself ahead of those guys. I’m not a sprinter. I’d say I’m a climber. Maybe I’ve got a reasonable engine, so I can pull on the flat. But a big sprint is not my forte.
“However, I’ve managed to just nip ahead of them every stage so far in in the bunch kicks.
“So hopefully I can just keep that going…”
