LEADING THE LINE Eventual stage winner David O’Loughlin leads Blazej Janiackzyk, Evan Oliphant and Cameron Jennings during the final stage of the FBD Insurance Ras last Sunday.
Pic: Sportsfile
O’Loughlin wins final stage Mayo riders pleased as marathon race ends
Feature
Daniel Carey DAVID O’Loughlin finished the FBD Insurance Rás in fine style, winning Sunday’s final stage from Newbridge to Skerries.
The Cong cyclist won a sprint finish to edge out Evan Oliphant of the Britain Plowman Craben team, one of three riders he had broken away with 20 kilometres into the stage. O’Loughlin had his Pezula Racing team-mate Cameron Jennings for company as well as Polish rider Blazej Janiaczyk, and at one point the quartet were six minutes clear of the peloton.
“The four of us got away early in the race and there was pretty even riding all the way,” said O’Loughlin. “I told Cameron to put in an attack with 20 kilometres to go, to suss them out a bit because I didn’t know if they were strong or not. He attacked, they didn’t seem that strong and I took encouragement from that.
“I countered it and Oli [Evan Oliphant] came across to me. I threw in a few attacks but I couldn’t get rid of him. I was a little bit worried because he is good in the sprint. But I kept it in on the left hand side because the wind was coming across the road. I also left it late enough because I knew that there was a strong enough win there. That was it. He sort of came at me with 50 metres to go but I just got him on the last little bit.”
O’Loughlin finished in a time of 3.22.13, narrowly edging out the Scot in a sprint, with Janiaczyk and Jennings 37 seconds behind in third and fourth. The Mayo man, who finished 59th in the General Classification behind eventual winner Stephen Gallagher, might also have won Thursday’s fifth stage from Tralee to Skibbereen, but suffered a puncture shortly before the finish having gone clear with British rider Simon Richardson.
“That day was really frustrating because I didn’t have a chance to sprint [for the stage win],” said the 30-year-old, who finished third in the mountains competition and 11th in the points competition. “My form is only coming around now, I am definitely coming out of the week better than I went into it.”
Castlebar rider David Brennan, who was riding his second Rás as a member of the Kerry team, crashed on a wet descent into Tralee on Wednesday. Brennan’s departure from the race was a ‘real downer’ for his training partner Chris Troy, but the Newport man made it all to the end of his very first Rás.
Troy said last night (Monday) that his legs were ‘very tired’, but he was in high spirits, having finished 113th overall and achieved his objective of finishing the race. He had been training with Brennan since the end of October, but only officially got a place a week beforehand.
“It’s been the main thing in my mind all year,” he told The Mayo News. “So Sunday was a very emotional day. Seeing my family on the line, the whole year had come together.
“I had it built up so much in my mind … I was so worried about the first stage. The first one wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be, and the second day, going through Castlebar was fantastic. There was so much support. David and I led the second half of the bunch through the town, and into Claremorris, so that was brilliant. But the week just got harder and harder every day. The stages got longer and tougher, and I suppose you’re getting more tired as the week goes on. But I had brilliant support from the club in Castlebar, and the guys who took me on from Kanturk.”
Having trained all year ‘with the feeling that it might come down to the week before’, Troy ‘actually got a shout from two teams in the end’. But he stuck with Kanturk, who had been first to approach him. It was a dream come true for the 38-year-old, who celebrated his birthday the day before the Rás began.
The race was full of memorable moments for Troy. The journey from Tralee to Skibbereen included six categorised climbs and the infamous ‘Tunnel Road’ – “It was like a stage out of the Tour de France”, he recalls. Then there was his first experience of the so-called ‘piano’, where the race slowed following the crash which ended Mark Cassidy’s time in the yellow jersey.
But his stand-out moment was coming through Castlebar – “Honest to God, I was nearly crying!” As he made his way back to the west on Monday night, Troy’s thoughts were turning to his next challenge. He’s considering riding in the National Road Race Championships, but his next major goal is to ‘try and do a good time’ in the Time Trial Championships.
“I’ll take a week or two off and [then] start training for that,” he said. “And there are local races, including Ballinrobe. I was second there last year but it’ll be a bit harder this year – I’ve moved up a category. I might have another crack at it.”
