Shane Archbold of the An Post Chainreaction team leading the pursuit of the first big move that went away yesterday; Sean Downey is third in line about to pounce once the juncture is made (Photo: Ramsey Cardy)
By Brian Canty
Sean Downey put in a storming ride yesterday on stage five of the An Post Rás to haul himself right back into contention for the yellow jersey.
On a truly epic journey from Cahirciveen to Clonakilty, the An Post-Chainreaction man forged his way into the day’s decisive break which pulled out a whopping 10 minutes on the yellow jersey group.
He now sits eighth over, 58 seconds behind new leader Clemens Fankhauser (Austria Tirol Cycling) ahead of today’s stage finishing atop Seskin Hill.
And Downey knows he’s right in the mix for overall honours come Sunday in Skerries.
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“The winner is going to come from this group, “ he said at the finish yesterday, referring to the 11-man break he infiltrated on the category three climb at Derrycreha after 107 kilometres.
“So tomorrow I must be very, very alert and get all the help I can from the team and choose the right moves.
“I know I’ll not be able to get in the moves unless I’m very lucky, but you never know. It’s the Rás and anything can happen.”
The Banbridge man came into the race in excellent form and buoyed by some very consistent results so far this year.
“I definitely came in here wanting to do well, whether it was a stage win or GC,” he said.
“I know stages are hard to win because of the style of guy I am. But if it’s a hard day every day I’m very good at recovery and this week I’ve been waking up refreshed and well recovered.
"The last few years at the Rás, I’ve always been doing the donkey work. But now I’m the protected rider and I want to show everyone that believes in me and knows I have the potential what I can do.”
Wearing the An Post kit and sitting 8th overall, Downey knows it will be hard to get up the road between now and the finish in Skerries on Sunday (Photo: www.blackumbrella.ie)
He had to do a fair amount of donkey work himself yesterday, mind.
When a 25-man slipped up the road and pulled out a minute the only one of Downey’s team mates in it was Jack Wilson, who is too far down to challenge overall.
So the call was made by Shane Archbold – recovering after crashing earlier in this race - to chase down the break to tee up Doull or Downey who were both well placed.
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“Shane made the call to start riding and I started riding as well,” said Downey.
“We hit the bottom of the climb (Tunnel Road at 97km) and we had about 40 seconds to make up but we rode hard up it.
“Robert-Jon (McCarthy) hit it at the bottom and then me and Doull went up it. The other teams started racing up it then and we caught the break on the descent.”
That, essentially was the turning point. And when the race came back together, Downey saw his chance just after Glengarriff.
“I saw a gap and followed a wheel and I looked around and Marcin Bialablocki was on my wheel so I started riding; smashing it really hard up the cat three and we had a gap of around 30 seconds.
“Then all of a sudden it went to one minute, two, three, six, eight minutes and with 10k to go I threw in a wee dig to test the legs.
“It was cat and mouse for a while and coming into the last bend I was on Bialablocki’s wheel. But I got switched in the corner.
“I had to lock up and sprint from a slow speed up the hill. Bialablocki is strong so it would have been a big effort to beat him anyway.”
Initially, Downey was dejected until it dawned on him that he was so close to the jersey.
“I knew I was better than eighth on the stage, that was disappointing. I knew I could have been well up there, maybe if I didn’t break at the bottom I’d have been top five. but it is what it is, you can’t moan about it.
“I was a marked man whenever I moved. No one wants to see the An Post rider win. I was really pumped and really fired up for it today, I just want to win so bad.
“I’ve been knocking on the door a lot this year; progressing every race. And I thought today would be my day but unfortunately it wasn’t. I’m well up on GC now though and there’s still a few hills here to play with.”
He said Kiwi Archbold, who lost a lot of time because of his team work, rode like two men yesterday.
“Me and Shane go way back to the UCI school and he is a team player; he’d do anything to help someone out and I would do the same to repay him.
“It does really help when you’re friends and you know the person. We’re friends and he came up to me when I was at the front and said for me to conserve myself while he destroyed himself.
“The job he done today was what we needed. This race isn’t easy for us, and it’s even harder because everyone is watching us like hawks.
“To be up there on every single stage is hard but we’ve been doing it. It just shows you the bond that’s there.”
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