Chaotic day ends well for Wetterhall

CYCLING:WHAT most typifies the FBD Insurance Rás is the aggressive, unpredictable, even chaotic style of racing at the event. Over the years it has become known as a contest that is spectacularly difficult to control; team sizes of just five riders each, heavy roads and strong winds, plus the large number of county teams willing to give it a go, to stir things up, are all factors in the constant salvo of attacks each day.

Overnight race leader Dan Craven summed it up yesterday, speaking ruefully of a 169-kilometre trip from Oughterard to Tipperary which cost him his yellow jersey. “I spoke to some foreign riders when we were in the bunch and they all agreed that this is the most insane race that they have ever been in,” he said, looking a little crestfallen.

“This was a typical Rás day; everyone attacks at the first kilometre and they don’t stop attacking until the end. It was absolutely mad; by the time we hit the climb, you could see everyone was really suffering.

“Some guys rolled off the front and all the strong guys in the general classification except (Mike) Wetterhall were left there behind, looking at each other. No one reacted until it was too late. We tried to chase them, the An Post team was really dedicated. But the other teams basically gave up on it, so it is a big loss to them.”

The net effect was that 20 riders slipped away, fighting it out for stage honours and wresting the jersey from Craven’s back. German rider Maximilian May (Thuringer Energie) proved quickest in the final gallop to secure a sprint win, while Wetterhall (Sweden-Team Sprocket) jumped from seventh to first in the overall standings, taking his first ever leader’s jersey in a UCI-ranked stage race.

The 2008 FBD Insurance Rás winner, Stephen Gallagher, was best of the Irish in ninth, crossing the line in the same time as May, while Connor McConvey (An Post Grant Thornton M Donnelly Seán Kelly) came home 14th and jumped from 15th to fifth overall.

The 21-year-old is in his first full season road racing, but was actually one of those responsible for the move. He, Wetterhall and Rob Partridge (Wales) attacked approximately 72 kilometres into the stage, the Belfast man netting second and first on the categorised climbs of Killanena and Knockanena, and built up a lead of over a minute.

Just before Scarrif, which came 95 kilometres into the stage, they were joined by 16 others. This group was the one which would stay clear to the end. Irish riders Neil Delahaye, Stephen Barrett, Seán Lacey, Stephen O’Sullivan, Paul Griffin and Philip Lavery all tried to bridge across, but didn’t get any closer than 40 seconds from the lead group.

Behind, there was even greater panic. Race leader Craven, Tuesday’s stage winner David O’Loughlin and, in all, nine out of the top 10 overall all missed out. At one point they were seven minutes back, but a concerted, desperate chase saw 48 of the riders fight back and limit their losses to just over two and a half minutes.

Their chances of taking yellow are not over, but Wetterhall now has a lead of one minute 46 over the next six riders, McConvey included. “I am an aggressive rider, I like to ride on the front. So this is a good race for me,” he said after the stage. “I can be aggressive and it counts as well. I knew I could have the yellow jersey after today so I was riding really hard in the last 50 kilometres just to keep it going.”

May was the day’s other big winner. “I knew that I had to be in second or third place in the last corner,” he said. “I saw the sign for 150 metres to go and I gave it everything I had.”

The race continues today with a summit finish at the top of Seskin Hill. Another shake-up is likely, another reshuffling of the general classification in this most chaotic and wonderfully unpredictable of races.