Jamie Meehan (AVC Aix-en-Provence) has taken his best result since stepping up to UCI Continental level this year and told stickybottle he may have taken his first victory had he adopted a more aggressive approach in the final of Le Poinçonnet-Panazol Limoges Métropole.
However, the former Irish U23 road race champion still shrugged off very wet conditions late in the race to go on the attack over the final climbs. He made the key split of about eight off the front and then had the legs to leave those he was with as part of a two-man move.
Meehan attacked off the front and rode clear with France's Tom Lambert Wetzel (Vélo Club Villefranche Beaujolais), with the duo finishing 58 seconds up on a seven-rider chase group; Lambert Wetzel winning it in a two-up sprint.
Advertisement
"I think I gave up a win," Meehan told stickybottle. "I definitely felt strong and he told me afterwards that he was dead. And there was a good climb with 10k to go and if I'd gone there, it could have been a different story.
"But I'm pretty happy with the shape; how the legs were, how the body was considering my map wasn't working, my power meter wasn't working in the rain. But the sensations were good. And I know what to watch out for going forward, what to improve on."
Related News
Meehan said with a climb some 106km into the 158km race, adding after the flat opening section of the race, with crosswinds, the weather turned, with heavy rainfall. And with about 60-70km completed it was clear to him the conditions were starting to impact morale in the bunch.
"Heads were dropping but it didn't really phase me too much with being where I'm from," laughed the Donegal man. "When we hit the climb, the head for the front and when I saw it was in one line I attacked."
However, one of the other Conti teams in the race, Bourg-en-Bresse Ain Cyclisme, had a strong squad out on the day and they rode the climb hard, catching Meehan. But that pace saw the race split, with Meehan cresting the first peak of the climb in a group of eight.
They started to work and when they reached the top of the climb proper, the Irish rider took the climbers' prime, before his group swelled close to 20 riders. Shortly after that, eventual winner Lambert Wetzel attacked and when the riders at the front couldn't hold him, Meehan jumped across to the leader to form the winning two-man move.
"We saw we had a gap, and we just went for it from there," he said. "We rode well together. I put in an attack with maybe 3k to go but he saw that coming. I ended up leading in the sprint and really he just had more power in the sprint."
