MacManusa, in yellow, had to be on his toes to defend the jersey against Clarke, pictured here on the front on the attack (Photo: Toby Watson)
Fresh from victory in last weekend’s Newry Three Day, Art MacManusa talks us through the final stage defending the yellow jersey. He was backed by a band of brothers determined to bring home the bacon for their club, South Dublin-Clonee CC, and was delighted with holding off a strong rival in the shape of Newry’s Cormac Clarke.
Well, the final stage. Starting in the yellow jersey. It was my first time wearing yellow. My team mate Geoff Sheenan set the tone for the day brilliantly. He came into my room in the morning and said: “Did you look out the window at the day out there? It's a winning day boy".
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Nice. That was exactly the positive start we needed.
The final stage – the fourth in all - was 105kms with four climbs; cat 2, cat 2, cat 1 & a final cat 2 to be negotiated before the race was won. Cormac Clarke, a really strong junior from the local Newry club, was only four seconds behind me on general classification. So I knew I couldn't give him an inch all day.
Our plan was to control the bunch for the stage as a team and not let any breaks get away. I was to stay sheltered to stay fresh so that I could cover any dangerous attacks from Clarke. If the four lads were controlling it all day, they would naturally be a bit tired and fall back a little on the climbs. That's where I had to watch out for the danger man from Newry. I expected him to go for the King of the Mountains jersey. If he got over the top of the hills in a small group, he would keep pushing on and try and get away. So we had to be on our toes.
In controlling it, the lads wanted to let people know that we were composed and confident in pulling breaks back. We never showed panic. Instead of panicking and jumping after every attack – which would have started a frenzy of attacks - they stayed controlled and reeled breaks in steadily.
There were primes for the points jersey at 15km and 35km, which started a lot of attacks. We kept it all together. The lads were all near the front of the bunch, taking it in turns to share the work. We had to be careful not to burn up too much energy. I've seen it happen a few times before where a team burns up too much energy defending the yellow jersey at the start of the last stage. They get tired near the end and can't control the hard attacks in the closing kilometres and lose it after all their hard work.
We didn't want that.
So if there weren't any attacks, the lads just rode tempo at the front to save energy. I was sitting in about 20th spot in the bunch most of the day; on the right hand shoulder and always keeping an eye out for Clarke. It was handy being on the right hand shoulder of the bunch. I could watch people moving up, planning on attacking.
I had my danger men on GC written down on my crossbar and how many seconds behind me they were. If someone dangerous was moving up to attack I'd latch onto their wheel and mark them.
The first climb was at 51km. It was a short stomper climb. The lads still had the whole bunch together. Now it was my turn on the climb not to let any GC men away. The men who were in the hunt for the KOH jersey; I had their numbers written on my arm. I used that to check who was likely just trying to get KOM points, and not necessarily trying to get up the road. Clarke, Ian Richardson from UCD and a few others well up on GC all moved up to the front. I stayed close on their wheels.
Clarke looked strong and he took the KOH prime as I'd expected. Richardson was with him and they had a bit of a gap on me. Ian is a great tester, so leaving the two of them up the road was a risk I didn't want to take. I chased them down on the descent and got them back fairly quickly. A few others made it across to us. There was a bit of a frenzy of attacks then and I felt I had to cover all of them. I was vulnerable here because if I covered everything I'd get tired. And if Cormac timed his attack well he might get away with a few others.
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I tried to keep in my head that I needed to save a strong effort in the legs for Cormac's attack when it came. I had my finger ready on the gear shifter, listening for the sound of others changing gears before they jumped. And sure enough, the Newry man went for it; grind teeth, chase wheel – a pretty simple formula.
Even though it was stressful, I was loving the chasing. But I couldn't keep up racing like that. If I was to cover every attack myself for a good while, I might crack eventually. Just then the lads brought the bunch back up to us. It was such a relief having them back. It was like a kid being bullied by a small gang and then having his four older brothers rock up to kick their asses.
The four lads on the team were all strong, so with all of us there we were confident we could control things. Geoff and Fran Gibson have been racing for years and have more experience than the rest of us on the team. Aaron O’Donohue and Niall Somers come from a triathlon background. Aaron's won a few A3 races this year, so he has experience. Niall is new to bike racing so he’s still learning the tactics.
The two lads coming from triathlon have huge engines. They're really good climbers and decent testers too, so they're used to working hard. Geoff and Fran are both strong riders too. Every rider on the team is an honest hard worker on the bike; the ones who tend to do more than anyone in a race, only to get shafted and be left empty handed on the finish line. They’re the ones you never hear of in race reports. They seemed to be in their element working hard all day with the goal of yellow – and it was great to have them working with me.
I didn't want to let them down by letting Cormac up the road and losing the race for them, after all their hard work. So it was a good pressure to have. It's rare that you see any teamwork in Irish races. We knew we'd be ganged up on. So it was a challenge we were looking forward to as a team, to see if we could control the bunch for the day.
Before the second climb, a four-man break got away. It had Gareth McKee in it, who was now virtual yellow on the road. We decided to leave the break out there and keep it at one minute. By doing this, the break swept up the KOH points so there would hopefully be less of a fight over the top of the climbs. It worked well for the second cat 2. On the cat 1 climb, Cormac and Ian put in a good attack but I marked it safely. With one cat 2 climb left, McKee was 40 seconds up the road on his own now. Fair play to him; he was really strong and he'd now taken the KOH jersey.
We planned to reel him in inside the last 15km after the cat 2. One of the teams from the North then gave us a heads up that we were going to be attacked on the last climb. I was on Cormac's wheel at the bottom. He has a really good kick on a steep climb and used it to gap me. He was in a front group of three. And I was in a group behind of four. Luckily, the group I was in all seemed interested in the stage win, so I didn't have to do any of the chasing to catch the guys ahead.
The two groups came together and we caught the lone leader to make eight of us out front. There was maybe 10kms to go at this point. It was dry mouth time for me, nervous moments to be honest!
There were a few attacks from the group, with people going for the stage. I just had to make sure I was always in the lead group. The bunch caught us then. With about 7km to go I was in about 20th position. I looked at the front of the bunch to see the four lads there in a line on the front. I was really proud of them; South Dublin Clonee CC on the front giving it loads for the overall win, brilliant!
I stuck to Cormac like glue for fear of him pulling back the four seconds he needed. He made one attack that I covered. The last few kilometres were a bit hectic. Usually in a sprint I tend to fall back the bunch a bit in the closing stages. Cormac was moving up the bunch though. I had to ask nicely and push through a good bit to get up to his wheel. In the gallop, a Newry team mate of Cormac's started the sprint, with Cormac second in line and me third. On the line Cormac got second and I got fourth. Finally we could relax about not losing the yellow jersey.
I was delighted with the win. We won the team prize too which was good for the lads. I know it sounds like a cliché, but it was more of a team win than an individual win; we got the yellow and the team prize between the five of us. And hopefully I can pay them all back at some stage.
Chatting to Cormac after the race; he seems very level-headed and modest. He's a great talent at only 17, so I wish him all the best in the Junior Tour and hopefully he gets the win.
South Dublin-Clonee CC have plans for the winter to build a good squad and hopefully get some big wins. Maybe the win in Newry is the start of something; hopefully!
Cheers
Art
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