Buggle gets his county rider prize on the podium in Kilkenny (Photo: Paul Mohan – Sportsfile)
The county prize winner on today’s opening stage of the An Post Ras, Aaron Buggle has said he is hoping to score some UCI ranking points this week towards qualification for the U23 World Road Race Championships in Valkenburg in September.
The 21-year-old Meath man has done most of his racing in France in recent years but missed the 2011 season after a knee injury he picked up training in Australia kept him completely off the bike for almost nine months.
He has since returned to France to race and recently gained selection on the Irish U23 Nations Cup team for races in France and Holland.
He is riding the Ras for Dan Morrissey-Speedy Spokes, who were first county team today. There are now ten county teams on equal time after today’s opener.
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“I definitely wouldn’t have come home from France just to ride the race, I’m hoping to do something in it, to get a result,” Buggle told stickybottle after today’s stage.
“We need UCI points to qualify riders for the U23 Worlds so that’s a major goal for me here. Obviously the U23 classification jersey is there. I actually didn’t realise today there were such significant time bonuses at the hot spot sprints and Philip (Lavery) did a great job going for the first one and he has the jersey now, so fair play to him.”
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“I wasn’t thinking of the county rider prize at all to be honest. I was setting off back to the hotel on the bike and somebody told me I got it.”
“The first hour today had a pretty high average speed. But to be honest I felt pretty comfortable. Some people were saying to me, ‘God, I hope it doesn’t stay this fast all the week’. But I was thinking that if it did I’d be pretty happy with that. I was trying to stay up near the front and out of trouble. At the end it was more of a drag race than a sprint and I just tried to stay up near the front.”
Buggle was national U23 TT champion in 2009 and 2010. In the 2009 championships his time was quick enough for him to be ranked second in the elite race, with only David McCann going quicker. However, as an U23 he was not entitled to take the elite race silver medal.
He is hoping his recovery rate during this Ras will see him stay strong a little later in the week when the race hits Donegal. And if he recovers as well as he believes he can, he hopes to be in the mix in the general classification.
There are still 82 county riders in the field after today’s opening stage despite some crashes that left some riders looking very much the worse for wear. Of those 82 county riders, 47 were in the peloton today and recorded the same time as Buggle, who was 17th on the stage.
After that 47 in the peloton today, Castlebar man David Brennan was 48th county rider; on his own some 2:28 back. There are then some really big gaps, with 20 riders between 10 and 35 minutes down and a group of fourteen county men 36:51 down. Many of those either fell early in the day or were held up by the crashes and battled on to the finish.
We’ll have more stand alone county reports through the weeks.
County Rider Stage 1 Results and GC
| PL | No. | Name | TM | Time | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 91 | Buggle,A | = | 3h09’10" | |
| 2 | 173 | Ryan,S | @ | ||
| 3 | 153 | Clifford,D | @ | ||
| 4 | 107 | Armstrong,A | @ | ||
| 5 | 95 | Barry,T | @ | ||
| 6 | 146 | Marrey,P | @ | ||
| 7 | 92 | Lacey,S | @ | ||
| 8 | 118 | Cassidy,C | @ | ||
| 9 | 111 | Ahern,B | @ | ||
| 10 | 155 | Nulty,J | @ | ||
| 11 | 89 | McFadden,S | @ | ||
| 12 | 167 | Sherlock,R | @ | ||
| 13 | 108 | Martin,T | @ | ||
| 14 | 144 | Coyle,C | @ | ||
| 15 | 143 | Clarke,P | @ | ||
| 16 | 93 | Kelly,R | @ | ||
| 17 | 123 | Fox,K | @ | ||
| 18 | 106 | Murphy,C | @ | ||
| 19 | 96 | Kenneally,D | @ | ||
| 20 | 121 | Considine,E | @ | ||
| 21 | 154 | O’Regan,T | @ | ||
| 22 | 165 | Walls,K | @ | ||
| 23 | 175 | Slattery,M | @ | ||
| 24 | 116 | MacManusa,A | @ | ||
| 25 | 169 | Lucey,M | @ | ||
| 26 | 151 | Dowling,M | @ | ||
| 27 | 171 | Butler,M | @ | ||
| 28 | 152 | O’Muire,F | @ | ||
| 29 | 119 | Prendergast,C | @ | ||
| 30 | 110 | McCabe,W | @ | ||
| 31 | 157 | Moriarty,E | @ | ||
| 32 | 137 | McCorry,M | @ | ||
| 33 | 109 | Duncan,F | @ | ||
| 34 | 158 | Meehan,A | @ | ||
| 35 | 105 | Buchanan,M | @ | ||
| 36 | 166 | O’Shea,J | @ | ||
| 37 | 126 | Storan,M | @ | ||
| 38 | 90 | O’Sullivan,C | @ | ||
| 39 | 172 | Hooton,R | @ | ||
| 40 | 161 | Robinson,C | @ | ||
| 41 | 136 | O’Shaughnessy,R | @ | ||
| 42 | 87 | Houston,K | @ | ||
| 43 | 122 | Cox,S | @ | ||
| 44 | 97 | Peelo,D | @ | ||
| 45 | 112 | Connors,O | @ | ||
| 46 | 138 | Barry,M | @ | ||
| 47 | 163 | Reilly,C | @ | ||
| 48 | 141 | Brennan,D | @ | 02’24" | |
| 49 | 160 | Mason,J | @ | 10’04" | |
| 50 | 113 | O’Brien,P | @ | 11’26" | |
| 51 | 120 | O’Conluain,C | @ | 11’26" | |
| 52 | 128 | Looby,R | @ | 11’26" | |
| 53 | 115 | Collins,A | @ | 13’34" | |
| 54 | 162 | McMahon,H | @ | 13’38" | |
| 55 | 139 | Mortimer,D | @ | 13’41" | |
| 56 | 98 | O’Brien,D | @ | 13’41" | |
| 57 | 159 | Crowley,A | @ | 13’41" | |
| 58 | 124 | Loftus,A | @ | 13’41" | |
| 59 | 147 | Flaherty,J | @ | 13’41" | |
| 60 | 114 | Whiting,D | @ | 13’41" | |
| 61 | 164 | Byrne,D | @ | 13’41" | |
| 62 | 94 | O’Reilly,M | @ | 13’41" | |
| 63 | 99 | Lynch,J | @ | 13’41" | |
| 64 | 149 | Flanagan,M | @ | 26’24" | |
| 65 | 150 | Brady,M | @ | 30’47" | |
| 66 | 104 | McLoughlin,D | @ | 35’00" | |
| 67 | 117 | McGlynn,N | @ | 35’06" | |
| 68 | 125 | Barry,E | @ | 35’32" | |
| 69 | 142 | Clarke,C | @ | 36’51" | |
| 70 | 101 | Stewart,S | @ | 36’51" | |
| 71 | 102 | Devlin,R | @ | 36’51" | |
| 72 | 103 | Lagan,D | @ | 36’51" | |
| 73 | 100 | Gargan,J | @ | 36’51" | |
| 74 | 86 | McAllister,C | @ | 36’51" | |
| 75 | 129 | Looby,S | @ | 36’51" | |
| 76 | 140 | Quinn,C | @ | 36’51" | |
| 77 | 148 | Harrington,D | @ | 36’51" | |
| 78 | 156 | O’Sullivan,S | @ | 36’51" | |
| 79 | 170 | Swinand,G | @ | 36’51" | |
| 80 | 88 | McKinney,B | @ | 36’51" | |
| 81 | 145 | Tuohy,P | @ | 36’51" | |
| 82 | 130 | Connolly,E | @ | 36’51" |
County team stage 1 results
| PL | Name | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Carlow Dan Morrissey Speedy | 9h27’30" |
| 2 | Meath Dunboyne DID Electrical | 9h27’30" |
| 3 | Dublin West Eurocycles | 9h27’30" |
| 4 | Tipperary DMG Visit Nenagh | 9h27’30" |
| 5 | Dublin South UCD | 9h27’30" |
| 6 | Tipperary Carrick IverkProduce | 9h27’30" |
| 7 | Galway Black Rose | 9h27’30" |
| 8 | Antrim Chain Reaction Cycles | 9h27’30" |
| 9 | Meath Stamullen M.Donnelly | 9h27’30" |
| 10 | Louth Cuchulainn Crystal | 9h27’30" |
| 11 | Mayo Castlebar Western Edge | 9h29’54" |
| 12 | Meath East Spin 11 | 9h37’34" |
| 13 | Dublin Dundrum Town Centre | 9h38’56" |
| 14 | Cork First Finance Apex | 9h41’11" |
| 15 | Mayo Centra | 10h07’35" |
| 16 | Kildare Newbridge Pfizer | 10h15’47" |
| 17 | Donegal LK Bikes | 10h39’21" |
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