Patrick Bevin crushed the opposition today in taking stage 2 of the An Post Rás into Lisdoonvarna and with it the yellow jersey. But with six stages remaining he says there is a long way to go (Photo: Ramsey Cardy - Sportsfile)
By Shane Stokes
He was clearly strongest on stage two of the An Post Rás, breaking clear with over forty kilometres to go, riding for some time with Dominick Jelfs (Madison Genesis) before dropping the Irishman and then hitting the line almost two minutes clear of the next riders, but Patrick Bevin has accepted that it is far too soon to presume he has won the race.
“It is a really tough position to be in early in the week, to be in yellow; it’s really tough on your team-mates,” the New Zealand national team rider told stickybottle in a video interview conducted at the finish in Lisdoonvarna.
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“It’s good that there is some separation behind; it’s not the whole bunch back there. You have got to play the game, play the shuffles with the breaks.
“We have got a really strong team here but it is one of those things… we’re going to just take it stage by stage and see how it goes.”
Bevin’s strength was clear on the 159.2 kilometre stage and he ended up with the day’s victory, the yellow jersey, the points classification jersey plus the lead in the King of the Mountains competition. It was a staggering display and an attack he rationalised as a mixture of impulse and instinct.
“There was a lull. I had good legs. I knew that the stage finish suited the possibility of staying away,” he explained. “So I chanced my arm.
“There were two of us there for a while but I unfortunately found myself alone with fifteen, twenty kilometres to go. I just pushed on, just committed to ride to the finish. You know if you have got good legs, you are going to be hard to catch.”
Bevin has taken the yellow from stage 1 winner Robert Jon McCarthy of An Post-Chainreaction. It will be interesting to see what that team, and indeed the other strong squads in the race, can hit the Kiwis with given the the new leader has so much fire power (Photo: Ramsey Cardy - Sportsfile)
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He is one minute 55 seconds clear of the next two riders, Clemens Fankhauser (Austria Tirol Cycling Team) and Alessandro Pettiti (Italy Team Idea 2010 ASD). Everyone bar two others are at least two minutes back.
Still, with six more stages to go, including the stage six uphill finish at Seskin Hill, he said that he is taking nothing for granted.
“I will have to have to check out the summit finish,” he said.
“Obviously those short, sharp climbs suit me. I really do like that terrain. That is good, but summit finishes are a different animal.
“We will just take it… it is a long week before then, so there are a few stages to go before then.”
Watch the video interview to see Bevin’s reaction to today’s stage, hear his estimation of his likely rivals and also find out about his background.
Patrick Bevin speaks to Shane Stokes in Lisdoonvarna
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