Mark Dowling takes the Newbridge GP and says he feels ready for the foreign racing ahead (Photo: www.blackumbrellaphotography.com)
Mark Dowling has said he’s very happy with how his winter training has gone and feels confident ahead of his first foreign assignments with new UCI Continental ranked team Polygon Sweet Nice.
The Dubliner, who rode for DID Dunboyne last year, made a winning return from his winter training base in Lanzarote at the weekend when he took victory in the Newbridge GP in Co Kildare.
He said he missed the initial move of 17 riders and was forced into something of an epic chase of around 45km with two other riders before he managed to get back to the head of the race.
“I’d only come back from Lanzarote and is was 30C over there so the temperature in Newbridge was a bit of a shock to the system,” he said.
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“I had a jacket on and I went back to the cars to take it off and when I got back to the group a break of 17 riders had gone clear.”
Dowling said he decided not to attack after the group in case he could not get a group to go with him. Instead he went to the front of the bunch on a drag and in the crosswind he rode hard “to put it into the gutter” and try and split the race to get a chase group clear.
“But only two riders came with me. There was a long way to go so I was thinking to myself it was a bit of suicide move.”
However, while he did the bulk of the riding in that three man move, those he was with were able to do some work to give him a break.
“I knew we were away for the day so I just kept riding. Then we got a time check at one point and we had over two minutes on the bunch and we had the break of 17 back to just under one minute.”
Staying committed to the task, Dowling and his fellow chasers finally made the juncture with those up front. With 2½ laps remaining in the race when they got back to the front, Dowling said he decided to sit in for around a lap to try and recover, anxious that he would not blow after such a long and hard effort in temperatures close to zero that he was not used to.
However, when Fraser Duncan (Eurocycles) attacked and Grew Swinand (Usher IRC) went after him, Dowling knew he could not afford to play a waiting game.
“Stephen Halpin was in the group and he had ridden to keep the gap, to keep it at something that I could jump across. But when I saw Greg go and then you had two strong riders up the road, I knew they could make it all the way.”
He then decided to jump after the leaders and was quickly joined by young emerging rider Javan Nulty (DID Dunboyne). They caught the two leaders to make four up front, and it was that quartet who made it to the finish to fight for victory.
Dowling said he was not sure how his legs would perform in the sprint so decided to follow any attacks coming in the road and see how the finish might pan out. In the end, it was the strongman Swinand who opened the gallop, Duncan then went for the line early with Dowling tucked in behind him. And finding himself with enough in the legs to get past the strong Eurocycles rider, he took the win.
However, he is not resting on his laurels and his thoughts have immediately turned to his first foreign assignments with Polygon Sweet Nice; the Tour of Taiwan and Tour of Thailand.
He leaves Ireland on Thursday for the Tour of Taiwan which begins next Monday and runs for seven stages. Dowling and his team mates then have a break of seven days before they start into the seven-stage Tour of Thailand.
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“The races probably don’t really suit me hugely,” he said.
“There are a couple of rolly stages in Taiwan and then Thailand is pan flat; stages up to 200km that are completely flat. So certainly if it comes down to a situation where I would ride for other people on the team I would have no problem with that because I know it would be repaid later in the season when we are in races that are hillier and suit me more.”
“I’m hoping to be able to stay on after the Tour of Thailand for the Tour of the Philippines because there is one really hard stage in that; the last stage finishes up a really big climb at altitude, so that would suit me.”
Dowling added after spending the winter in Lanzarote training hard – as he has done for a number of years since his days in triathlon – he is very much looking forward to the challenges ahead. He feels he will be competitive in the races the team rides abroad rather than it being a case of surviving through them.
“I was in Lanzarote for 4½ months. Before Christmas I was doing lots of 4 to 5 hours rides then after Christmas I upped that to 6 and 7 hour rides; good steady riding. Then a while back I cut down on that a little bit and upped the intensity, doing intervals; four efforts of 20 minutes each time, that sort of thing.”
“A lot of the guys that are out there are very good, world class, triathletes. You can train with current and former Olympic and Worlds medalists. There is always a group to go with and then when I was doing stuff in the mountains and intervals, I would train on my own.”
“But with the triathletes, they are world class and they are on their time trial bikes so I found when I was training with them, that was more than enough for me. And I was also with two Belgian cyclists, guys who ride for Terra Footwear, so they were great to train with too.”
“I was staying in a great place out there, the Sands Beach Resort. It’s a place where holidaymakers can go but in the last while they’ve put in a good pool and a gym and they are really trying to attract athletes.”
“I did a bit behind the motorbike as well when I was out there so I feel confident now in what I can do; I don’t think it will be just hanging on and surviving when we are away.”
Newbridge GP
1st Mark Dowling – Polygon Sweet Nice
2nd Fraser Duncan – Eurocycles
3rd Javan Nulty – DID Dunboyne
4th Greg Swinand – Usher IRC
5th Aaron O Donoghue – South Dublin CC
6th Art McManus – South Dublin CC
7th Craig Sweetman – Stamullen M Donnelly
8th Ciaran Mangan – Clonard RC
9th John Kenny – Navan RC
10th Stephen O Sullivan – DID Dunboyne
Unplaced A2
1st Geoff Sheehan – South Dublin CC
2nd Daire O Sullivan – Usher IRC
3rd Anthony O Neill – Usher IRC
4th Eric Downey – Orwell Wheelers
Morgan Sparrow Memorial A3
1st Jack Sadler – Vanilla Bikes
2nd Danny Bruton – NRPT
3rd Joe Christian – Bray Wheelers
4th Ciarán Campbell – Drogheda Wheelers
5th Fintan Ryan – NRPT
6th Seán McKenna – UCD
7th Nick Cosgrave – Unattached
8th Brian McArdle – Orwell Wheelers
9th Niall Clarke – Cuchulainn
10th Rory Farrell – Newry Wheelers
A4 Race
1st Dermot Gregan – Slipstream
2nd Billy Purcell – Usher IRC
3rd Gerard Lacey – Slaney CC
4th Brendan Stewart – Staggs Lucan
5th Shane Dillon - Adamstown CC
6th Niall Allen – Wexford Wheelers
7th Tommy Busher – Orwell Wheelers
8th Lucas Furmin – Murphy Surveys
9th Ferghal Regan – Headstrong
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