The Ras

A couple of years ago I raced the Junior Tour of Ireland and really enjoyed the experience. When I saw that the Ras was on the Wales Racing Academy Calendar for 2018 I was well happy! The Ras certainly didn't disappoint....

The Ras is an eight day international Stage race around Southern Ireland. (By the way, the locals pronounce it like 'Sauce' but replacing 'S' with an 'R'..). This epic race began in 1953 and has a worldwide reputation of being a gruelling challenge in the International calendar. This year the race began in Drogheda and each day we raced to a different town or village staying in various hotels along the way. Varying from basic 3 man rooms, to some mint hotels. In Bantry I had a double room with a balcony overlooking the sea! Some of the scenery along the way was stunning too so I'm told; I just wish Id had the opportunity to admire it!

Racing for Wales Racing Academy were Sam and James Tillett, Dan Combe, Will Roberts and myself. We were supported by the A Team - Manager, Rob, Archie on spanners and Jodie our Soigneur.

It was a truly international line up with teams from Switzerland, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, USA, GB and of course Ireland.

The first 2 days were flat sprint stages. However, a breakaway stayed away on the first stage with a swiss rider taking the win. This swiss rider stayed in yellow until the last stage. Stage 3 was the first GC test with 2 notable climbs in it. The swiss team were incredibly strong and controlled the race and this formed the pattern for the rest of the week. During this stage the race split and thankfully I was in the front split so moved up to 21st on GC. The next few days were undulating but controlled once again which meant each stage ended with a sprint finish. Throughout these days the lads did a brilliant job with getting in moves and protecting my GC position.

The penultimate stage was the toughest of the race. This is where I really needed to make my move to shoot myself up the GC. Early on in the stage a dangerous move went and I missed it. The lads then did a super strong chase to put me in a position to bridge across to the break. I managed to do so. This looked to be the move of the day which would stick . However,again the Swiss team split the race and brought a group of riders across to us. We had another crack up the climb to split the Group but sadly it wasn't to be...

Moving into the last stage what we thought was going to be a fairly simple day turned into a fight at the end. There was a massive turnaround of the GC standings with a Delta (Netherlands)rider snatching the overall from the Swiss by just 1 second! I ended up 13th on GC which I'm pretty happy with. I had a good crack at trying to gain a few more positions on the penultimate stage but it didn't quite pay off...

All in all I had an excellent week away with the Team. The organisation of this race was class and transfers between stages were next to nothing which made it easy going for both riders and staff. I would love to do the Ras again. I was super proud of how the lads helped me throughout the race. I'm now looking forward to travelling with the Team to Belgium in the next week or so.

I'll keep you updated.