No place like home as Hanson takes yellow

LAST October Ken Hanson came over from California to visit his aunt and cousins in Leitrim and yesterday his relations were celebrating his return to the county of his ancestry as he claimed the first yellow jersey of this year’s FBD Insurance Rás in Ballinamore.

Riding for the Isle of Man team, this was a spectacular return for the 26-year-old American who exploded from the pack 300 metres out and then held off the fast finishing Dutch rider, Patrick Kos, in an enthralling bunch finish that was fought out in glorious sunshine in the town of Ballinamore.

Benny de Schrooder of the An Post/Sean Kelly team snatched third place ahead of Mateusz Komar (Poland), Dean Downing (Stena Rapha) and Mark Nestor (Dublin Eurocycles) who underscored the big Irish presence that was evident at the front of the peloton throughout the day.

But Hanson was the man celebrating. “My first time in Ireland was last October when I met a lot of my cousins in Leitrim,” he said. “I know of this race. There have been a few American teams who have done it before and I raced with those teams back home.

“I talked with the race organiser and I asked if there was a team that had an open spot. In 10 days I got contacted by the guy who runs the Isle of Man team who said ‘I got a spot if you want to come’ so I booked a ticket one week in advance and did everything I could. I contacted my cousin to stay with him in Dublin for two days before the race started. It all happened so fast. I am so happy I was able to make it and have success on the first stage.”

He didn’t know the race but he did his homework well, did not panic when breaks slipped off the top early in the day and worked himself into the perfect position to exploit his ferocious sprint up the main street in Ballinamore.

“I never raced here before so I had to talk to my team mate, Andy Roche who won this race 10 years ago,” he said. “There was a breakaway and I did not know if the break was going to come back, if there was going to be a field sprint or if I should try to attack.

“In the first 20k I was going with attacks — trying to be active — because I know big breaks can slip away here and they stick. The style is a little different to what I am used to in the United States.

“I don’t know any teams — I know a few guys like David McCann and Ciaran Power because they have raced on American teams before so I know they are really good. I don’t know anyone else so I just tried to be as smart as I could and conserve energy.”

His team-mate, Andy Roche, was in a three-man breakaway that slipped clear of the main pack 4km from the finish and the main field was busy keeping them in his sight. They caught them, then the finishing straight loomed up, the peloton spread out across the road and he jumped.

“The guys could have given me a lead out,” he said. “We had Andy Roche up the road with four kilometres to go in a group of three guys so it was easy for me to float in that kind of situation.

“A team mate said if you have an open spot with 300m to go just go and I went. I was not expecting the finish line to come so fast but I’m glad it was closer than I thought because the Dutch guy came up fast.”

It was the biggest win of his career to date — his fourth this year — so he had cause to celebrate.

“Back home in the United States I am a criterium specialist — a sprinter — this is my first individual international and I could not be happier.”

The stage, 88.3 miles from Navan, always had the look of a bunch sprint about it. Tim van der Zanden (Netherlands) and Eugene Moriarty (Meath/MyHome BDBC) attacked at Ballyjamesduff and were joined by Rob Partridge (Britain Team Stena Line Rapha Condor Recycling.co.uk), Alex Higham (Britain Plowman Craven), Daniel Lloyd (Ireland An Post M. Donnelly Grand Thornton Sean Kelly), Derek Burke (Ireland Pezula Racing), Morten Hegreberg (Norway Sparebanken Vest), Simon Kelly (Dublin IRC Ushers) and Sean Lacey (Dublin Eurocycles), and, for a brief moment it appeared as if the group might do damage as they went two and a half minutes clear.

But they were reeled in due mainly to the riding of Ciaran Power’s Pezula team and the An Post team at the front of the bunch and all subsequent attacks were dealt with in similar fashion to set up the grandstand finish and put Hanson in yellow going into today’s stage from Ballinamore to Claremorris.

“I don’t know the race but I know that the jersey can change by day to day and those stages are tough — the train is non-stop up and down — and it is really hard,” Hanson admitted. “But I would hope we can defend the jersey.”