Liam Crowley has been trading his Team Ireland for the climbers’ classification leader’s jersey in recent days on Rás Tailteann (Photo: Toby Watson)
By Shane Stokes
Clad in the jersey of the King of the Mountains, Liam Crowley will line out on today’s fourth stage of the Rás Tailteann with a huge day in store. There are no less than eight categorised climbs on the menu, making the stage utterly vital in his defence of the mountains classification.
“I think it’s been a long time since we have seen a Rás stage that hilly,” he told Sticky Bottle at the finish in Enniscourthy on Friday. “So I don’t really know what to expect, to be honest. It can be no harm in being up the front all the time and keeping an eye on things, because there is going to be splits everywhere.”
Crowley won the opening climb of the race on Wedesday and also picked up a second place on the subsequent climb. He ended the day second overall to Adam Lewis (USA: APS Pro Cycling) in that competition but swept into the lead on Thursday when he won primes at Caha Pass, Glengarrif and Cougane Gap.
“I am pretty grateful for the little buffer I got yesterday because today was just so fast,” he said Friday. “A breakaway got away so they took all the points. But tomorrow is another big day, so let’s save the legs for that tomorrow. Hopefully try to hold onto it.”
Crowley went into the race as the oldest rider on the Team Ireland squad but, at 24, he’s by no means a veteran. But with two juniors on the team, Hugh Og Mulhearne and Fionn Killeen, and also 19 year old Conor Murphy, his guiding hand is appreciated.
Former world track champion Martyn Irvine is directing things from the team car but Crowley and Jack Conroy are also helping the young riders learn the intricacies of the race.
“The young guys Hugh and Fionn are absolutely flying,” he said. “On nearly all the climbs they are flying. Then we also have Jack as well and he is flying.
“It has been great to guide the young lads and give back a bit of experience because I remember when I was on the Irish team two years ago, I was learning off the likes of Dillon Corkery.
“So it is nice to give back now. Hopefully they can learn something off me anyway, that I can show a bit of leadership.”
There was a late change to the route on Friday when the organisers announced that poor road surfaces on the descent of Glenmalure had forced the decision to remove the climb from the race.
That will be disappointing to many, and with an easier third category climb taking the place of that first cat ascent, the stage will not be as difficult for the non-climbers.
Prior to the change Crowley had suggested that a regrouping would be possible.
“That road after the Shay Elliott [Glenmalure] is pretty fast. If a group only gets maybe 30, 40 seconds, I think it could come back if it is a small group. But if it is a big split with more than 30 riders, I don’t know if that is going to come back. But we will see.”
For him, defending the mountains jersey will be the big priority and might even see him go up the road early to try to mop up more points. He has 34 points, a solid 14 points ahead of Matthew Walls and 19 in front of Adam Lewis.
Both of those riders are part of the USA: APS Pro Cycling team which has its eyes set on trying to take the yellow jersey from Tim Shoreman, meaning their focus is a little less likely to be on the mountains competition.
Crowley will give his all to try to take home the distinctive purple jersey, even if it wasn’t originally his goal in the race.
“I was a bit disappointed on stage one, I was caught in a crash,” he said. “I was initially going into this with GC in mind but once that was out of the equation, I said I am going to try and focus on something else.
“So on Thursday I cleaned up a few KOMs, we will try again tomorrow. Hopefully I can hold onto it.”