Clemens Fankhauser says he was relaxed watching the New Zealand team control the race, but now accepts that responsibility falls on to his shoulders (Photo: Ramsey Cardy - Sportsfile)
By Gerard Cromwell
Although defending Rás champion Marcin Bialoblocki took the stage honours into Clonakilty yesterday, it was Clemens Fankhauser who benefited most from being in the 11 man lead group.
Having taken almost 10 minutes on most of the race, the surprised Austrian took over as race leader at the end of the stage.
Fankhauser begun the day just a minute and 55 seconds down on overnight leader Patrick Bevin of New Zealand. But from what he had seen of the Kiwi over the previous two days, he expected to get no closer to the the yellow jersey.
“I never expected to be in yellow,” admitted the delighted Austrian afterwards.
Advertisement
“Patrick (Bevin) was so strong that I thought the race for first place was over on the second day. Even though it was aggressive the last few days I didn’t think that even with 11 riders we’d somehow open such a big gap.”
Although he is now in the driving seat, Fankhauser knows that with Madison Genesis teammates Alex Peters and Ian Bibby now within half a minute of his yellow jersey, the next few days will be tough.
Related News
“Everything changed today, but tomorrow will be very hard for us. It’s going to be really tough.
"We had 11 riders up there today and I think seven or eight of those are very, very close to the jersey and there will be a very hard fight in the GC for the next few days. Genesis especially, are really strong.
"I was quite relaxed the first few days because I was watching the yellow jersey controlling everything, but now it’s up to us and we will be the ones who have to control everything.”
The new Rás leader speaks to Shane Stokes and Cian Lynch
Topics
