Thomas Rostollan of the French Aix En Provence team gets his reward in Buncrana today (Photo: Stephen McCarthy – Sportsfile)
By Gerard Cromwell
In Buncrana
The yellow jersey of race leader may have changed hands for the first time in four days on the An Post Ras today, but the Swiss Atlas Personal Jackroo team maintained their grip on the race with Nicolas Baldo taking over from overnight leader Pirmin Lang at the end of stage five in Buncrana.
Although Baldo finished 11 seconds behind stage winner Thomas Rostollan of the French Aix En Provence team - at the rear of a three man group that also contained second on the stage Martin Hunal (Czech republic Sparta Prague) and third placed team mate Jonathon Fumeaux - the French rider had enough time in hand over the chasers to take over the race lead after five days of racing.
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Third on the opening stage of this Ras, Baldo and teammate Fumeaux both showed their hands early today when he went clear alongside Dane Lasse Hansen (Blue Water Cycling) after the first climb of Barnesmore Gap around the 45km mark.
Although they quickly opened up a gap of a minute to the peloton, the trio opted out of the move after around 20km of hard riding.
“We made the mistake of attacking too early,” he admitted later.
“We were misinformed a bit and didn’t expect the roads to be as big and wide in the early part of the stage. We thought it was going to be narrow roads but we were almost on motorways and with the headwind, it was too hard. We made a mistake and were going nowhere so we stopped our effort and afterwards on the steep climb (Mamore Gap), my team mate was very strong and I followed him and we rode away in the last 10km.”
As French time trial specialist Thomas Rostollan did his thing up front for the final 40km, Fumeaux went clear of a large chase group on Mamore Gap.
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Rostollan had jumped ship when his original breakaway companions German Daniel Bilchmann (BikeAid), British duo Richard Lang (Rapha Condor), Matt Higgins (Node4 Giordana) and Christian Varley of the Isle of Man were about to be joined by an11 man chase group containing Swiss race leader Pirmin Lang (Atlas Personal), Daniel Clifford (Meath D.I.D) and yesterday’s stage four hero and local rider Ronan McLaughlin (An Post) on the climb of Slavary after 112km.
“I just wanted to do something and I got myself in the break,” said McLaughlin who spent his school days at Crana College in the town.
“We led through Buncrana the first time and we were just caught before Mamore. It would have been good to have gotten over Mamore but when we were caught it was too hard to hang in. I jumped again with 2km to go, where I planned to attack to win the stage but sure, after yesterday’s effort, I’m delighted with how I did today. I can’t expect much more.”
As McLaughlin & Co got caught, Baldo set the tempo at the head of the peloton on the climb, followed closely by a grimacing Connor McConvey of An Post; the lanky Belfast youngster knowing he could take over the race lead if they got clear.
“I was good on Mamore and went up it in the front of the group,” said McConvey, who began the stage just six seconds behind overnight leader Pirmin Lang and 14 seconds ahead of new leader Baldo.
“The crowd were amazing on the hairpins. The hair was standing on the back of my neck with the atmosphere and I went full gas and managed to get a gap with Baldo. We went down the descent together but he had a team mate (Fumeaux) up the road. A guy from Sparta (Hunal) came across and they jumped me. I just had no legs and was in no mans land until the next group came across.”
As Rostollan soloed to stage victory, Baldo finished fourth behind teammate Hunal and teammate Fumeuax to take over the race lead y three seconds from Rostollan.
“This race is a war,” said Baldo at the finish.
“There are attacks all day long and it’s really hard to follow the groups and to not lose the race. It’s very hard. Sometimes you need a lot of luck and right now we have a lot of luck. Whatever happens now is a bonus but I think we can do something great this week.”
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