Tour of Ireland: On Versus

That Dan Martin is wearing!!

I think I found 2 or 3 days but was missing something in the middle. Something to look forward to when I get out of here for sure.

I’m still not sure why this race is getting so much coverage (at least compared to other races) on VS, but I’m happy it is.

Michael Barry… Maggy…. Martin – and the kit looks cool… Adam Hansen… Cav… What’s not to enjoy? Good stuff.

One hour at 7 PM

Parts of yesterday’s course was pretty beautiful

He didn’t even look happy he won. It seems like his competitive spirit is very low. The interview with him at the end was very honest. That’s one of the reasons I like him. He foesn’t just give us the same old sound bite quotes.

I did enjoy the coverage. It is a small race but the quaint villages and narrow roads are a nice change to the glitz of the Olympics and the TdF.

Watched it on Irish telly last night. They managed to squeeze Bono in but didn’t mention Guinness or Riverdance. I’m impressed :)

I liked the post-stage interview with him. Nice, humble and honest. I got the impression he regrets abandoning the Tour and is probably glad to be out of Brailsford’s clutches.

Columbia totally controlled the stage. There’s a lovely bit on the long slow grind out of Borris where the Belgian squad comes to the front en masse and Eisel tells them to steady it down, he’s in charge. Cav seems to suggest Columbia were more interested in GC and jersies than stages – he even showed himself during the intermediary sprint through Roundwood. Great to see him coming to the front over Mt Leinster too, suggesting he’s saying the Irish hills don’t scare him. Maybe he won’t be shelled out the back come the weekend after all, but I still think the finishes on Saturday and Sunday are too lumpy for him.

Glad to see Martin made it through with the peloton, even with his stomach bug. Hopefully it’ll be through his system by the weekend, which offers two stages for him to shine. If it isn’t – well bring on the Tour of Britain.

Also good to see Garmin think Julian Dean’s sprint is worth setting up. Bodes well for controlling breakaways when there’s a couple of squads with something to protect. Also suggests the British squads may have a more difficult time in the Tour of Britain next week than they did last year. Will come back to that when I knock up a Tour of Britain preview for the middle of next week.

Ditto Chris Sutton. Looks like Garmin have a bug in their system. So much for that soap dispenser thingey Kimmage raved over.

The Irish Tour is not kind to its local stars. Nicolas Roche abandoned day one last year.

And Cav does what he’s here to do and makes it two for two.

I may have to explain why Manxers are actually Irish soon.

The peloton seems to have been skittled a couple of times in the closing klicks.

Check out the Lovely Girls doing podium duty (bottom pic on the left).

(Did you get Father Ted in the US?)

Seeing as they’re a local outfit I should get all jingoistic and cheer on Maximiliano Richeze’s 3rd place on today’s stage and 4th place overall on GC. And ignore his pre-Giro vitamin-induced mishaps. And the fact hat he’s a team-mate of Emanuele Sella. But if I did then then I’d probably have to start defending Pat McQuaid. And national pride can only push you so far.

Three for three for the Manx man. Columbia really have this race by the scruff of the neck. Can they control the Tour de Misery and the ToB to the same extent?

Gets interesting tomorrow and Sunday though. Can Cav hack it over tomorrow’s bumpy bits and Sunday’s climbs of St Pats’s? If not, with Team Type 1’s Matt Wilson looking so strong in the KoM comp, he might actually be best placed of the GC’ers to bet on over the weekend. But Columbia are spoilt for choice for riders they could send up the road tomorrow to steal the overall GC.

So the story ‘bout Cav seems to be that he’s an arrogant little shit. Ask someone who doesn’t like him and this is what they’ll tell you. He’s an arrogant little shit. Yet here in Ireland – as in France – all I seem to see of his post race comments is him thanking his team and playing himself down. Take today

"We brought back the main group with ten kilometres to go and then it was a question of winning. After everything that happened [they’re been a bad crash on the final descent] and the work they’d done, I had to really."

You see, me, I just love that “Just doing my job, ma’m” line he rolls out.

Tour of Ireland site is adding video highlights. They’re a bit back-logged and only have stage 1 up so far, but expect the others to follow in due course.

So as expected, the Conor Pass separated the GC players from the GC pretenders – and with more than 50 riders starting the day within a minute of the geansaí buí some separating was needed. And as was not entirely unexpected, Cav was shelled like a pea from a pod, losing minutes by time he rolled into the finish. Columbia didn’t suffer any separation anxiety though and instead sent three riders into the front group to see if they could keep the geansaí buí but on different shoulders, or at least still be in contention for it tomorrow.

Over the bumps round Slea Head the boys were separated from the men, with even St David of the Slipstream sliding out the back, leaving Julian Dean unprotected (Magnus Backstedt having been wasted on a pointless morning escape and then blowing out on the Conor Pass). Dean left two teams who’ve been pretty anonymous in the race up to now – Spain’s Karpin Galicia and the UK Pinarello CandiTV outfits – to slug it out for the stage, with Russell Downing’s win meaning it’s been a British lock-out on stage-wins so far. And – sadly for Garmin’ chief strategist – Downing taking the geansaí buí by just two seconds from Dean.

Going into the final stage then, it’s Downing from Dean with Team Type 1’s Matt Wilson 11 seconds back. But a few laps of St Patrick’s Hill tomorrow will change things still further. If I had to take a punt, I think I’d actually fancy a bet on TT1’s Matt Wilson.

And Fat Pat is expected to grant the race his approval by making an apparition at it this weekend. Truly, we are not worthy.

Having banged his hip taking a tumble on an oil-slicked decent on Friday and then lost eight minutes as the race wound its way round Slea Head yesterday, Cavendish bowed out of the race and his green sprint-leader’s jerseys just as the race started its four ascents of the 1-in-4 St Patrick’s Hill. His chief helpmate in this race, Bernard Eisel, had abandoned just minutes earlier.

Columbia said at the start of this Tour that they were treating each day as if it was a classic in itself and today they went for the stage win, with a break containing Fratisek Rabon (21 minutes down on GC) getting away in the opening kilometres of the stage.

In that initial break had been Rabobank’s Thomas Rabou, starting the day just forty seconds down on GC. The other breakaways seem to have suggested to him that life might be better if he wasn’t in the break as they had no hope of staying clear with such an obvious GC contender in their midst. The Dutchman took the hint and dropped back to the peloton, leaving the break free to open a lead of nearly four minutes before they reached St Patrick’s for the first time.

They were soon whittled down to just two riders, Rabon and Pezula’s Fredrik Ericsson (18 minutes down on GC). Ericsson had been the star of a long solo breakaway on Thursday. With this being Pezula’s last race he was clearly out to impress teams still looking to sign new riders. He certainly impressed the ToI judges who declared him the race’s most aggressive rider.

Meanwhile, back in the bunch, Columbia still had Marco Pinotti and Michael Barry both within 18 seconds of GC. Could they wrest the geansaí buí back?

On the third ascent of St Pat’s – with just 25 klicks to go – they played their Barry card first. He jumped clear of a group containing Garmin’s Julian Dean, Team Type 1’s Matt Wilson and the geansaí buí of Russell Downing and got a lead of 30-odd seconds before being clawed back inside the final ten klicks.

At which point Columbia played their Pinotti card, he attacking and quickly opening a lead of 40 seconds over Downing and Dean. Disunity in the chase from Dean, Downing and Wilson saw that lead opening up as the kilometres counted down.

Up front the two-man break of Ericsson and Rabon – each a TT champion – were still riding strong. Rabon made the crucial move, jumping Ericsson early, inside the final three klicks. He stayed clear to the finish line. Stage win number four for Columbia.

A stage win made even sweeter for the Columbians when Pinotti crossed the line shortly after, far enough clear of Dean and Downing to take the geansaí buí back for Columbia. Game, set and match to Columbia.

Of the chasers, only Garmin’s Julian Dean was left without a consolation prize. Team Type 1’s Matt Wilson took home the Tour’s KoM jersey while Pinarello’s Downing took his second cast-off from Cavendish’s shoulder, the sprinter’s green jersey.

Just watched the highlights. Russell Downing fought soooo hard to keep that jersey-such a gutsy ride-but nobody was any match for Columbia. Very exciting finishing laps with that horrid 25% climb.

Last day of the race, four times up that hill, jobs done … yeah, I think they were right to abandon too.

Is that some kinda record?

The used roads that had grass growing down the middle, one with a stream crossing, and another with a 25% grade. Wicked. And did anyone else notice that Dave Towle, and his sidekick, were doing the announcing at the start and finish?

And since this might be the last opportunity to rave about Ireland for a while, here’s the link to my May vacation photos from Dublin. Click on the “slideshow” function to see them better. Sorry for my technical inexpertise, they are totally out of order and I haven’t figured out how to sort them yet :-) What a beautiful place; the history geek in me was in raptures the whole week!