By Shane Stokes
British rider Alex Pritchard has admitted he and his team will have a testing day defending the race lead on Thursday, with six climbs lying in wait between Kanturk and Sneem.
The Richardsons Trek DAS rider won stage one on Wednesday, beating Paul Kennedy (USA: Skyline-Cadence) and another Briton Dom Jackson (UK: Foran CC) at the finish in Kilmallock.
They had gone clear approximately 25km into the opening stage, clocked up a lead of more than four minutes, and reached the line 23 seconds ahead of the main bunch.
Just as his teammate Conor McGoldrick did a year ago, his victory sees him wear the first yellow jersey of the race. However the difficult nature of stage two makes him wary about his chances of taking the overall victory.
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“I don't think I’ve thought that far ahead yet,” he told Stickybottle, laughing. “Conor last year, he absolutely smashed it. It would be nice to try and do it justice, carry it all the way. But yeah, we'll see how we go. Tomorrow is going to be hard.”
Pritchard was making his Rás debut on Wednesday and exceeded his own expectations.
“Honestly, I’m a little shocked,” he said. “I didn't expect to get in the break and for it to stick and to stay away. So to walk away with the stage win is unreal. You couldn’t make it up.”
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He is clearly a very strong rider, but attributed his success in part to being in the right place when things reached a crucial point.
“I just dropped my gillet actually in the team car about half an hour in,” he said. “It had been going pretty fast and hard at the beginning. I just managed to roll up to the front and just countered a move of one of teammates who had just been pulled back in.
“Then I was away and was joined by two others. And that was it. The lads behind did a really good job at blocking and then it just went a bit mad at the end, I think. But awesome.”
With just three out front and well over 100 riders behind, including some very strong competitors, the odds of staying away might have looked slim. However the bunch didn’t knuckle down to the chase until late on, and with the break keeping something in reserve and going deep at the end, they managed to hold off the galloping peloton behind.
“To see four minutes on the [time check] board was a bit of a shock,” he said. “When it came down, I thought that was game over. And then we just started riding really, really hard in that last ten K. With a kilometre to go I just hit the lads at the bottom of that descent and there we go.
“I think we had 20 [actually 29 – ed.] seconds on the line, so yeah, it’s pretty crazy.”
Stage two of the race is both the longest and hilliest stage, with no less than six categorised climbs looming on the horizon.
These include early category three hills at Scartaglen, Milltown, and Glencar, with the gruelling category one climb of Ballaghasheen pass and the difficult category two ascent of Coomakista lying in wait prior to a 16 kilometre finishing circuit in Sneem.
Pritchard, McGoldrick and their team will aim to keep the yellow jersey within its ranks but it is going to be a question of wait and see. “ I’m more of a time trialist myself,” he said. “So yeah, it's going to be hard, but we'll see how we go.”
