Tom Martin said he was delighted and relieved to win a stage on Rás Tailteann, picking a great day to pull the trigger (Photo: Caroline Kerley)
By Shane Stokes
Stage 4 winner Tom Martin pulled off another win for the UK: Wheelbase Cabtech Castelli, with his win into Baltinglass adding to the stage 2 success by teammate Tim Shoreman.
The team has a fine history in the race, with previous wins by both riders in other years.
It had hoped to pull off an even bigger success this year, with Shoreman in yellow heading into the Wicklow stage on Saturday. However relentless pressure from riders such as Conn McDunphy saw Shoreman dropped and the Dubliner take over at the top.
Martin was clear that McDunphy was doing the bulk of the work once the break went away.
“He was driving it all, and obviously I got a free ride all day,” he admitted. “It is such a hard situation when you have got your teammate in yellow.
Advertisement
“Obviously we wanted to defend that. I was hoping that I would come across with Tim but obviously that wasn’t how it played out.”
Shoreman had sounded relatively confident on Friday afternoon that he could hold on Saturday, but that wasn’t the way things played out.
“It was a really hard start to the stage like usual. The climbs in the beginning, I didn’t think they were going to be that bad and they were really hard, just the way they were raced,” Martin said.
Related News
“Going through a town a group of us rolled off, nothing special. Everyone was there and I was quite a way down on GC, so I wasn’t really that much of a threat.
Then over that big old climb (Wicklow Gap) it split up and then there were four or five of us in front and Conn McDunphy came across. Obviously I got a free ride with Tim being in yellow.”
McDunphy knew he was going into the jersey and pulled continuously at the front. He went so deep that he sprawled at the ground at the finish and lay there for quite some time, having given everything to take the lead.
Martin was being a lot more careful with his energy and when he went with 5km to go, only Joshua Dike (Spain: Natural Greatness Rali Alé) was able to respond. He did what he could in the sprint but Martin was too strong.
“I felt just joy,” Martin said. “And relief as well because I really wanted to win stage two, and that felt like a win because we won with Tim. But it is nice to get your arms in the air yourself, so I am really pleased about that.”
The race concludes today with a stage from Carlow to Dunboyne. It’s mostly flat, with just one categorised climb, but the Wheelbase riders will head into it with ambition.
Martin was clear that they want to win again, saying there are several riders from the team who are capable of taking the honours.
The squad likely hasn’t ruled out the yellow jersey either: McDunphy has a solid lead, but with Martin 52 seconds back in second overall, any isolation of the Irishman could threaten his grip on the race.
It may be a long shot, given the nature of the stage and how well McDunphy and his team are going, but Wheelbase will give their all.
