By Shane Stokes
Good things come to those who wait. Will Perrett has ridden the Rás Tailteann every year since 2022, clocking up a number of near misses in his hunt for a stage win. That wait came to an end on Thursday, with a storming solo ride into Clifden, six seconds ahead of 19 chasers.
“It’s an amazing, amazing feeling,” he told Stickbottle after the finish. “This is my fourth Rás now. I’ve come second [on stages] twice. I’ve come fourth about three times, I think, and I was fifth overall last year.
"I’ve always been close, but not quite got it over the line. So to actually get a stage win is an incredible feeling. Absolutely incredible.”
The UK DAS Richardsons rider was in a group of 13 riders who moved clear after the Cill Dubh category two climb, which came approximately 50km from the finish.
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Also present were Jamie Meehan (Team Ireland), who won the prime, as well as George Kimber (Isle of Man), Conn McDunphy and Adam Lewis (USA: Team Skyline), Josh Housley (UK: Primera-TeamJobs), Matteo Cigala (Dan Morrissey Pissei), Maxime Richard and Satchel Kim (Good Guys NY), Sebastian Brenes (Mexico Canel’s Java), Danylo Riwnyj (UK: Foran CT), Aaron King (UK: Wheelbase-Cabtech-Castelli) and Harry McFarlane (UK: Ride Revolution).
“It was really tough,” Perrett said. “The final 20k was in the wind. There was a cross wind. Riders were riding through and off, but then some inevitably are going to be sitting on trying to save their legs, and some are just running out of steam so were struggling to pull. And that makes the ride in quite messy.
Seven others bridged across close to the finish, with former race winner Daire Feeley (Burren CC) there, along with fellow Irishmen Odhrán Doogan (Cycling Ulster), George Peden (PB Performance), Cian Keogh (Team Skyline) and Matt Teggart (Banbridge). The Britons Jordan Giles (DAS Richardsons) and Josh Charlton (Great Britain) were also there.
Perrett said that things got more complicated then. “The group swelled. And of course, when that happens, a lot of the cohesion goes out of it. Then it just becomes really tough, because lots of riders are trying to chip off. Then gaps are getting closed down.
“It’s really tough on the legs when you’ve already ridden 160k full gas up those climbs.”
It was time for some tactical thinking.
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Perrett chose the perfect moment to make his move. Once he did it, he fully committed. “With 4k to go, I chipped off. I went really hard up this drag that I didn’t really know about,” he said.
“I looked behind, and managed to get a gap. And then that was it. I was all in. Once you’ve done that, there’s no point waiting for the sprint because you’ve already spent your final bullet.”
The rest of the group could see him in front, but he dug deep and managed to hold on.
“It was actually a really tough headwind at the end. That was pretty grim, but thankfully I just tucked in, went full gas and managed to hold off to the line.”
Had Perrett finished to the fore on stage one he might well have taken the yellow jersey. However Wednesday didn’t go quite to plan, and instead he is back in 20th place, 35 seconds behind Doogan.
“Unfortunately on the first stage I crashed with 3.5k to go. And because I was outside the 3k, I lost time pretty unnecessarily, really. I lost about 40 seconds. So although I’m close on GC, there’s still everyone in that final group ahead of me.”
Last year he was fifth overall, just 15 seconds behind the winner Dom Jackson. He’d love to challenge for yellow this time around but knows there is a big, big fight on his hands to get back into contention.
“I would like to try and go for GC, but I’m going to have to get away and ride really aggressively,” he said.
“So I’ll probably go hunting another stage, really. And then we’ll see where we are at the final day. If I’ve got the legs and I can try and make something happen, I might try to go for the overall.
“But at the moment, I’m just too far behind, and there are too many good riders still up there. I guess we will play it by ear. But my priority is try to get another win for the team.”
