The day's winning breakaway on Rás stage 7 making its way through Dunleer, Co Louth; eventual runner-up Damien Shaw is on the back of the group (Photo: Paul Mohan - Sportsfile)
By Brian Canty
For the second day in a row Damien Shaw came within a whisker of winning a stage of the An Post Rás.
The Team ASEA man was only beaten by Andreas Mueller (Hrinkow Advarics) after today’s 142-kilometre stage from Ballinamore to Drogheda.
The Mullingar man was the star of the show today and played it absolutely perfectly; attacking all day and forcing the key moves.
He was in the first escape of the day that featured 10 riders but with an overall contender present that was shut down.
It didn’t dissuade him from going again and again and eventually he got away with four others and was later joined by three more.
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In total, the eight-man lead group had Mueller, Conor Dunne (An Post Chainreaction), Matt Holmes (Madison Genesis), Steven Lawley (Neon Velo CT), Daniel Aurelien (Team Pays de Dinan) Liam Holohan (Madison Genesis) and Alessandro Pettiti (Team IDEA).
They all worked well but towards the finish Shaw wanted to go alone and repeatedly went clear only to be joined by Holohan.
Shaw told stickybottle after finishing yesterday that he’d look to try again in the final two days and he said he needed to play it with his head more than his heart.
He knew his best chance of a win was getting away by himself – or in a very, very small group.
And that’s how he worked it; attacking late, shaking as many as he could before charging up the finishing straight in Drogheda.
Unfortunately for him he was beaten by a faster man, with Mueller going past him in the final metres.
It’s a tough one to take for Shaw but a result he can be very, very proud of.
Behind, the battle for yellow was the talking point with Martyn Irvine escaping in a chase group.
And though he trailed overnight leader Pukas Postlberger (Tirol CT) by over eight minutes this morning, he pulled back six minutes at one stage on the road.
Irvine gave his all today in an effort to salvage a result but didn’t quite manage it.
Still, a phenomenal effort by him.
Postlberger is still in yellow with all the other jerseys very much as you were.
How it unfolded
Today’s penultimate stage took the riders 142 kilometres from Ballinamore, Co Leitrim, to Drogheda, Co Louth and featured three categorised climbs.
On a perfect morning for racing the riders headed in an easterly direction and from the drop of the flag the attacks came in wave after wave.
Several riders – and many of them county men - sprang off the front but before anyone got any significant daylight a crash involving the yellow jersey caused major panic in the bunch.
Lukas Postlberger (Tirol Cycling team) has been immense all week since he took the jersey and gingerly picked himself off the floor and with the help of his team made his way back to the bunch.
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Many felt it was Postlberger’s race to lose, given his lead of over a minute to the nearest challenger.
But the vulnerability of the man in the race lead was laid bare here today.
The 23 year-old was back in the bunch before long but did require assistance from the race doctor.
Ryan Mullen (An Post Chainreaction) was the best-placed Irishman in third at 2’19” with Martyn Irvine (Madison Genesis) at just over eight minutes.
The first group to go clear featured the hero of yesterday, Damien Shaw (Team ASEA).
But the presence of An Post Chainreaction man Aidis Kroupis meant that group was given no rope at all and was soon reeled in.
Shaw was clearly feeling good and attacked again and again while Irvine was also particularly aggressive, still hunting his second ever stage win in the race.
The next group was the move of the day and again Shaw was in there before being joined by Andreas Mueller (Hrinkow Advarics), Conor Dunne (An Post Chainreaction, Matt Holmes (Madison Genesis) and Steven Lawley (Neon Velo CT).
They quickly pulled a gap of 30 seconds but three more came screaming across to make it eight up front, those being Daniel Aurelien (Pays de Dinan), Liam Holohan (Madison Genesis) and Alessandro Pettiti (Team IDEA)
At the 65 kilometre mark their lead was 45 seconds as another trio jumped off the front of the peloton behind.
They were; Irvine, Sean Lacey (Aquablue) and Simon Ryan (Mego Racing Team); the latter having the week of his life and, like Shaw, the courage to match his legs.
So at that point there were eight up front being chased by three while another group of six tried to jump across to the latter trio.
And amongst those six were four county men; Ian Richardson (UCD CC), David Brennan (Mayo.ie), Sean McKenna (Aquablue) and Marc Potts (North Down Graham Powerhouse Sport). The other two were Barras and Journiaux.
Behind, the bunch began to lose big time and at one point they trailed by over five minutes from the eight leaders.
At that point, Martyn Irvine must have felt he could do the impossible and actually claw back the 8 or so minutes he needed to go into yellow but he needed all the stars to align in his favour.
His chase group dangled around a minute off the back of the eight leaders while the second chase group was always around a minute further back.
The second and third groups merged, meaning there were nine chasing eight at 1’20” with the bunch containing all the jerseys at 4’30”.
Sensing the danger up ahead, the bunch was stung into action and with An Post Chainreaction and the yellow jersey team on the front the gap began to come down.
Irvine tried to bridge to the leading eight while up ahead Shaw was putting in a monster ride, going clear time and again only to be brought back.
Still Irvine tried to get across to the eight and had time gaps of over a minute initially and as low as 20 seconds, a sort of Déjà vu to last Wednesday when he tried in vain to bridge to 18 leaders.
Liam Holohan – a teammate of Irvine’s - made life difficult for the Irishman as up front he attacked the front group relentlessly as Shaw tracked his every move.
That duo then went off by themselves inside the 10k to go mark, with six behind and Irvine a further 40 seconds behind.
But coming to the red kite they were all still together, with Irvine just behind.
Shaw tried to power his way up the steep ramp to the finish but it was Mueller who proved too quick.
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