Ras Mhaigh Eo A2/3 Stage Race 2017

harringtonp

No thread on this so thought I'd say a few words.

Having done it the last 2 years can say its a very well organised and thought out race. For anybody who likes "sportive" type races where you have a big loop rather than laps this race is the business with a fantastic mix of coastal and mountain scenery. Weather this year which was as good as you could hope for helped of course but even last year in miserable conditions (on the Sunday) you still got an appreciation for the place.

Westport itself is a delightful town, smallish yet modern with plenty of fine dining.

Racing was fast and furious and for those who can stay at the sharp end it must have been great. For others like me making up the numbers you can only imagine what it is like up there. No crashes this weekend but there were a lot of punctures on the loop of Corraun peninsula which I suspect were mainly down to loose stones.

Finally a line in an email from a friend prompted this thread:

"I felt that stickybottle let Aichlinn down a bit. It really was a great ride without much help. They were only interested in the two stage winners that they knew. Bit lazy in my opinion."

While I would think that in this case it was more lack of information than anything else on the part of stickybottle, it should be mentioned somewhere that he (Aichlinn) went into the final stage in the yellow jersey with about 8 guys within 30 seconds. He had no teammates and as attacks flew off the front he almost single handedly pulled them back one by one and would then "rest" a few places back waiting for the next one.

I don't know the guy from adam but googled a bit and see that he is an International triathlete who had the 3rd fastest bike split (Bryan Mc Crystal had the fastest) in the Irish National Duathlon Championship last year.

If he continues racing I'm sure it won't be too long before he is well known on the irish domestic scene

buffalo

harringtonp wrote: »

While I would think that in this case it was more lack of information than anything else on the part of stickybottle, it should be mentioned somewhere that he (Aichlinn) went into the final stage in the yellow jersey with about 8 guys within 30 seconds. He had no teammates and as attacks flew off the front he almost single handedly pulled them back one by one and would then "rest" a few places back waiting for the next one.

He also punctured 10km out from the finish during the final stage, and managed to return to the bunch despite no let-up in pace. In fact, looking at the data, the speed increased significantly at that point.

glassdoc

Good hard, fast racing at the weekend and well done to Westport Covey again.
I managed to stay with the bunch both days and could only admire the power of those attacking off the front (super juniors I think) at those speeds but hats off to the eventual winner who defended his yellow jersey like a seasoned pro riding tactically without team mates against the strong teams like NRPT and UCD. He did indeed puncture with 10k to go on the final stage but amazingly was back in the bunch with about 3k left. very strong riding.

yop

Thanks lads. I was race director this year, for my sins. Only copped how much work goes into looking after a 2 days race.

REALLY p(*Ssed off with StickyBottle. They had me hounded for results from Sat night and I supplied. I then supplied full results of TT, Stage 2 and GC but got nothing back from them and agreed with their report on Aichlinn.
I suppose he isn't a "star rider" which from my view is BS.

He is also an ex Covey as is Eoghan McLaughlin and Shane Ryall, both who won stages. Aichlinn did puncture as said and just managed to get back on at the end to secure his well deserved win.
You can see from the pics this guy is a big lad, I'm 5'11 and 95kg, so it gives you an idea what a unit this lad is, so I am really impressed with his win and power.

Thanks for the post P, I'm sure I spoke to you over the weekend and apologise to anyone who thought I was a grumpy cow!

niceonetom

I just want to say thanks, yop, for what was a very well run race with a really good atmosphere. Special thanks for arranging the weather too - it really showed off the beauty of your part of the world, which I actually managed to appreciate occasionally, even while under a bit of pressure. The coast road on Stage 1 is an absolute beaut to race on.

Hard to understate the ride that Aichlinn put in to defend his jersey. I thought he was doing very well about 30 or 40 km in, covering moves and pulling them back more or less solo, but I was pretty sure he would break eventually. Nope, he was still pulling back very concerted efforts from the NRPT and Orwell guys 50km later. Serious power. When he punctured I felt really bad for him, but to their credit the bunch didn't attack as I've seen happen before, but it didn't ease up one bit either. To get back on at that pace shows real class. Thinking about it now, the only time I've seen one-man-race-control from a yellow jersey like that was by Damien Shaw when he was A3 in Kanturk. No one knew who he was at the time either.

yop

niceonetom wrote: »

I just want to say thanks, yop, for what was a very well run race with a really good atmosphere. Special thanks for arranging the weather too - it really showed off the beauty of your part of the world, which I actually managed to appreciate occasionally, even while under a bit of pressure. The coast road on Stage 1 is an absolute beaut to race on.

Hard to understate the ride that Aichlinn put in to defend his jersey. I thought he was doing very well about 30 or 40 km in, covering moves and pulling them back more or less solo, but I was pretty sure he would break eventually. Nope, he was still pulling back very concerted efforts from the NRPT and Orwell guys 50km later. Serious power. When he punctured I felt really bad for him, but to their credit the bunch didn't attack as I've seen happen before, but it didn't ease up one bit either. To get back on at that pace shows real class. Thinking about it now, the only time I've seen one-man-race-control from a yellow jersey like that was by Damien Shaw when he was A3 in Kanturk. No one knew who he was at the time either.

On that, the ettiquette to slow up for the yellow to get on isn't it. No one broke which was fair enough.
He is a power house. He could do well.

Thanks for the comments, we were poxed in a good way with the weather

niceonetom

yop wrote: »

On that, the ettiquette to slow up for the yellow to get on isn't it. No one broke which was fair enough.

I would say it's a bit of a grey area. If it were earlier in the stage then I'd definitely argue that the bunch should back off and let him rejoin with minimal panic, but with 10km to go "the racing is on" as Kelly would say, so it's very hard to get that kind of consensus in the bunch, and all it takes is a few opportunists to blow it apart. The etiquette that you see on TV doesn't necessarily transfer to a domestic 2-day, and I'm not sure it always should. Cycling is inherently unfair and cruel, that's part of the game.

Having said that, I was very glad that cries didn't go up in the bunch to drive it hard. I saw that happen in the Rás in 2015 when the Yellow jersey crashed, and it was rough. His team brought him back just fine, but there was suffering, and not just for him. I've also seen guys attack when a piss-stop has been called or just after a feed-area, so the unspoken rules of top-level racing aren't necessarily observed even a couple of rungs below. All's fair in love and bike racing.

buffalo

Better late than never!

http://www.stickybottle.com/latest-news/ras-maigh-eo-overall-winner-was-only-training-for-triathlon/

harringtonp

buffalo wrote: »

Better late than never!

http://www.stickybottle.com/latest-news/ras-maigh-eo-overall-winner-was-only-training-for-triathlon/

Yes but the article gives a completely wrong impression:

"He was in the bunch on Saturday’s opening stage. But when he finished second in the stage two time-trial he went into the yellow jersey.

He took yellow by a fraction of a second from Alan Cawley (Galway Bay CC).

And he just about managed to hold that lead on Sunday’s concluding stage.
"

That suggests luck, that a happy bunch rider with a good TT won and as seen above couldn't be further from how it played out.

niceonetom

In fairness (sort of) to StickyBottle, they never get the actual plot-line of a race right.