Hello everyone,

 

Today’s stage went from Casthebar to Ballycastle for a distance of 114

km. It is, for here, a flatfish course but the wind is usually a big

factor. I had bridled the team about this, the wind direction and

tactics, based on this, the night before. When we woke, the wind was

exactly the opposite of what it usually is.

As expected, breaks went away early and Jake covered the first move of

four. This was good for us but not great. There were guys there ahead

of him or very close on GC so it made us vulnerable. The Irish team

seemed keen on getting away and putting the British team under stress

and that was good for us, if we played it right.

 

Hugh Carthy, on the the British team guys got into the move and that

was good and bad. He’s strong but his team has the yellow so what would

they do. We knew that they were not a good tactical team. The manager

from last year was smart and knew us but he was not directing that team

this year. They were being directed by the team owner and that is

usually not good in races like this. Pride and image tend to get in the

way of good decisions and that seemed to be happening here.

 

Brendan McCormack came across with one other and Colin shortly after

that with Ryan Mullan and that looked to be it. The break was about

twelve guys, mostly well placed, and gaining time quickly. The yellow

jersey was chasing hard along with the Irish national team GC hopes but

they were losing time steadily. We made the turn east into a block

headwind with probably 30 km to go and a 2:30 gap on the field and I

was happy. Colin was the yellow jersey on the road and then things

changed.

 

With 20km to go Hugh went clear solo. A foolish move, I thought as it’s

a long way to go but he quickly got 30 seconds on the group that

started to not work well and I started to worry. I hear over the race

radio that the yellow jersey and the Irish team are driving it and the

gap is closing back. 10 km to go and the yellow is  forty five seconds

behind. The worry was that Hugh was now over a minute in front and we

were losing the jersey to someone I knew could win the overall.

 

5 to go and the yellow jersey caught the group going fast with about

forty guys. It was all together except for Hugh who was still off with

over a minute but slowing down fast. The time gaps were coming fast,

every kilometer and I’ve not see the time drop this quickly.

 

At the finish, Hugh kept just off the front by a scant twelve seconds

over the fast charging field. We were nowhere on the stage but we did

take a toll on the leader. He was not looking great and there are still

the three hardest stages yet to come.

 

I’ll let you know how it goes.

 

Thanks for reading,

 

Toby