Newton bids to join Rás legends
“I am pretty sure he would love to win it,” said Herety, who starred as a professional in other races in Ireland like the Kelloggs City Centre series and the Nissan Classic in the 1980s.
“But this is a very, very difficult race to win,” he added. “It is very difficult to control the bunch with a team of five riders. You just cannot employ normal tactics that you would employ in another stage race.
“And if one of those riders happens to be in the lead then you have four attempting to control it and if one of those has an off-day then you are really in trouble.”
Herety has taken teams to the Rás seven times and won it three times and had podium finishes every other year, so he knows what it takes.
“This year we have a very strong team – in fact we have five possible winners,” he insisted. “They have the physical capabilities but whether or not they have the mental capabilities remains to be seen.
“Chris Newton is very good at working out when to use his energies. He knows the race and he is very quick to respond to a move. Being so heavily involved in the track he races 12 months of the year now and I was very conscious of the fact he is away from home so much when I was selecting the team but he made it known that he wanted to be in the team.
“I believe this is the strongest field that has ever been assembled for the race. It is certainly the strongest I have ever seen. Someone like Chris (Newton) who is well known to the other international riders as well as the UK riders is obviously going to be watched. But it is up to him to ride above all that.”
Newton’s team-mate, Kristian House, won the race in 2006 and will know what it is all about while the Lincoln Grand Prix, which is held the weekend before the Rás, is often a very good pointer to the outcome and, if that is the case this year, then Russell Downing (Candy TV Marshalls), will go to the line as favourite for the title because he was a very convincing winner of the Lincoln last weekend.
Stephen Gallagher (An Post/Sean Kelly/Martin Donnelly) was a surprise winner of the overall title last year while another member of the team, Mark Cassidy, crashed out in the yellow jersey earlier in the week.
Gallagher is an absentee this year but Cassidy is a late addition to the team which includes Olympic track rider, David O’Loughlin, winner of the final stage last year, and Páidi O’Brien who figured in a number of stages and ended up second overall two years ago. But their man in form is Niko Eeckhout, one of two Belgians who complete the team.
David McCann, another former winner, leads the Irish national team that includes exciting teenager, Sean Downey, whose father, Seamus, is a former Rás rider. He comes into the race after winning the Tour of Ulster.
Paul Griffin from Tralee had earmarked that race as vital to his Rás preparation after finishing runner-up to Brian Kenneally in Rás Mumhan but he travelled North on antibiotics for an infection which the doctor said he picked up from drinking contaminated water.
“I am over it now and I have been training away,” said Griffin. “I have not done as much racing as I would have liked. But I am back in the Kerry jersey again.”
Kenneally, too, has been out of sorts of late but he got all his preparations completed including an impressive victory in Dungarvan before coming down with a head cold and sore throat. But he is confident he will be over that in time for an all-out assault on the race.
Race organiser, Dermot Dignam, said this year’s field is the most experienced yet.
“I think this has to be one of the highest, if not the highest, level of experience we’ve yet seen from overseas riders,” he said. “We are talking about a former Tour de France yellow jersey and multiple stage winner in Jaan Kirsipuu, another stage winner Leon Van Bon, former Olympic champion Luke Roberts, and former world track champion Chris Newton.”
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