Corkman 3 day

Team UCD arrived down to the 3 day stage race as a firm favourite for the overall prize as well as a good shot for the team prize. Antony Walsh was the agreed team leader after a strong showing in the Ras Mumhun and also the British Premier calendar race a week before and all 5 riders were committed to this task.Stage one started in torrential rain which turned into driving hail over badly rutted farm roads. So bad in fact that Ciaran O Conluain snapped his handlebars on a fast descent in the closing stages. He did extremely well not to crash. The team tactics were to attack from the start and see who the main competitors were. Nothing really got away until the halfway point when Anto was in a small group and then Anto got away with Gav into a group that looked like staying clear.

The team rode on the front of the main bunch to protect the lead that they had in the lead group. On the final lap of six this breakaway group was slowly coming back to the peleton. Just before the catch, Gus Ryan jumped away in the final 600 metres with Walsh glued to his wheel.

Unfortunately in the final 300 metres the sprinters caught the pair and the stage win was lost. All team UCD finished in the bunch however and no overall time was lost.However, the break was successful in splitting the bunch, with only 54 riders in our group and the next
group in 16 seconds back.

That night a new set of handlebars were sourced for O Conluain and he was back in action for the following days racing which was to consist of a time trial followed by a road stage in the afternoon.The help of the commisaire in this respect is much appreciated as travelling almost 400km for a race is a challenge in itself.
A very strong time trial by Walsh put him in the yellow jersey briefly until he was overhauled by the final few riders finishing in 6th place. While this was disappointing it put the team in a very strong position for the afternoons stage as Walsh was only a handful of seconds down on the overall lead. Very strong performances by Haberlin and Rowan put 3 UCD riders in the top 15 a few seconds off the lead. With Walsh still the designated leader but with 2 other riders a few more seconds back, any move by UCD would be a major threat to the yellow jersey.

The tactic was to use UCD riders to attack at every opportunity. So we did. Rowan attacked right from the gun and immediately formed a breakaway group of exceptionally strong riders. He was then faced with a dilemma. Continue riding or come back to the bunch and attack the yellow jersey. A break is unlikely to stay away from such an early stage. He decided to come back and help the assault on the overall lead. Indeed the team attacked the race leader every few minutes. He responded very strongly to his great credit and seemed to have help from other teams but eventually O Conluain soloed across to a group of 6 which formed the main chase group riding alone for 85km of the race.

This was the carrot on the stick and the bunch let them out to a 3min gap at one point. Once this was seen the chase group eased their efforts and the bunch raised theirs and when the last time up the climb Anto attacked the bunch with 4 men on his wheel and joining the chasing group.
The yellow jersey could not respond and Anto rode hard with a group of 4 to finish just behind the winners and 6th on the stage with a gap of some 30 seconds on the new yellow jersey the reward for an extremely aggressive days racing. The yellow jersey however came from Fiachra Rowans initial break that had against all the odds stayed away, in most part, till the end.

Stage four
Only one thing to do. With the team prize looking like a good bet, Walsh had to attack. The tactic was to use the UCD riders again who still posed a threat to the overall to "soften up" the overall leader and then set Walsh up for a once off strong attack.

Ciaran and Anto were in a early move on a draggy section and an early crash held up Ryan and soon after O Conluain had the misfortune to crash out also.

Unfortunately Kanturk got 3 riders into an early break that got 35 seconds on the bunch, with a combined time of 1 min 45 seconds on us, making our 1st team position look insecure at the time.This left Haberlin and Rowan to set Walsh up. On a much flatter course this was always going to be a very tall order with the yellow jersey still very strong and all riders motivated for a sprint finish on the final day. Which is how it ended up with the break only being caught 5km from the finish. All three UCD riders rode extremely strongly but could not break the combined strength of the peleton and the sprint finish. Walsh finished 5th overall at 28 seconds with the two other counting riders Haberlin and Rowan in 13th and 15th place respectively.

Overall a great weekend for team UCD. The major goal was to win the team prize and this was achieved. A real will to win and to keep going in spite of crashes, and major mechanical issues bodes well for the Ras team late in May.