By Shane Stokes
Talk about completing a circle. British rider Tim Shoreman (UK Wheelbase Cabtech Castelli) won the final stage of the Rás Tailteann last year and, with that result, sealed victory in the points classification.
On Wednesday he took the opening leg of the race and found himself back at the top of the green jersey standings. What’s better again is that he is holding the overall lead in the race. It was the perfect start to his new campaign.
“It is really good. It feels like I have gone one up from last year, taking the yellow as well,” the UK Wheelbase Cabtech Castelli rider told stickybottle at the finish in Boyle. “So it was really nice to get a stage win and actually take the yellow as well.”
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Shoreman and his team were fully dialled heading towards the finish, realising that the tight turns in the finale and the uphill rise to the line could play perfectly to his strengths.
As he pointed out to stickybottle, he and the squad do plenty of criteriums back home. That experience played out perfectly on the run in to the line on Wednesday.
“The finish was really technical,” he said. “We kind of knew what we needed to do. We had looked at it in advance. I just fully trusted my teammates and they put me in the right place. Then I finished it off.”
Being positioned well and then unleashing a huge gallop saw him cross the line well clear of Irishman Niall McLoughlin (Connacht Cycling) and Will Tidball (Great Britain CT).
A total of 12 riders were on the same time at the finish but with time bonuses taken into account, Shoreman is five seconds ahead of both McLoughlin and Odhran Doogan (Cycling Ulster).
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He’ll begin stage two at the head of the general classification and plans to savour the moment.
“It will feel really good,” he said. “I am really excited to ride in the yellow tomorrow.”
Four stages now remain. Winning early on takes the pressure off the team but Shoreman remains hungry. He wants more from the race, but admits he isn’t sure what is possible.
“We will see. I don’t know,” he said. “Try to win another stage. Try to keep yellow. We will see.”
And while his main success at the race has been in sprints, he did finish seventh overall last year. That opens up the possibility if something even more notable this time around. A big performance in the GC is something he won’t rule out.
“I don’t see why not,” he said when asked if the route could suit his capabilities.
However he also knows how chaotic the Rás can be. “This race is so unpredictable. You never know what is going to go on. One day you could just lose two minutes out of nowhere and then GC is over.”
Still, that doesn’t stop him dreaming of a big, big GC result.
And there are other goals too. Another stage win in the days ahead would be savoured. So too a repeat of his points classification triumph of one year ago.
"I am leading the green jersey, so it would be nice to also keep in with that,” he said.
