By Shane Stokes
He’s twice won the king of the mountains competition in the Rás Tailteann but this year, Dean Harvey has got an altogether different target in mind.
The Team Ireland rider was looking fit and content at the finish in Boyle on Wednesday and now, in what is his third participation in the race, he’s ready to step things up a gear.
“This year I want to go for GC,” he told stickybottle. “There's no point in hiding it. That’s why I am here.”
Still just 22, Harvey is actually the oldest rider on a very young Irish team. He’s been gathering experience and also been studying the race, trying to work out what approach is best to take.
“I have been looking at the way it was won the last few years,” he explained. “The way it was won was by being aggressive and taking the race on by yourself. I will look for any opportunity and see what happens.”
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Stage one was won by Tim Shoreman (UK Wheelbase Cabtech Castelli) and, as the Briton acknowledged, the Rás is a very chaotic event.
The history of the race is full of examples of riders who shone early on but who faded from contention as the days ticked by.
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Those who triumph at the start are not necessarily going to be in the running towards the end of the race. Perhaps because of that, the Irish team had a particular goal in mind Wednesday. Namely to race, but do so in a controlled way.
“It was quite calm, I would say,” Harvey told stickybottle. “No dramas. That’s what I wanted. Just start the race and get into it without losing time.
“Our plan was just to have a man in every move, pretty much. We were taking it in turns to follow. We weren’t really trying to get away, but just to not miss out.
"There was one point a break got away, but we let it go and it just got gradually brought back. It was caught with like 10K to go, so no stress.”
Once things were back together Harvey’s main focus was on staying safe. That’s why he was so prominent in the finale. It’s also why he missed a crash involving Conn McDunphy, the rider who was second overall last year.
“I actually heard it [the crash] right behind me,” he said. “I decided to get involved in the sprint to hopefully stay out of trouble. I think that was a good idea.”
Next up is the longest stage of the race, a 170.9 kilometre trek from Charlestown to Clifden. The riders will face five categorised climbs, including the category one Windy Gap in the first half of the stage.
Harvey identifies both it and stage four as important days in the Rás, and will hope to fare as well as possible. A big GC performance may well depend on how those two days go. And while that brings a certain amount of pressure, he thinks he is in a good place.
“In the weeks before this I have been feeling good,” he said. “So there should be no reason why I don’t feel good this week.”
