Newton targeting third Rás title
Newton, 36, won a silver medal in the team pursuit at the Athens Olympics after taking bronze in Sydney four years earlier and he was back again to take bronze in the points race in Beijing in 2008.
Around those achievements he has been twice world champion on the track — 2002 and 2005 — and has three silver and one bronze from the world championships as well.
He has several World Cup medals and won the overall World Cup Series in 2008. He also holds medals from Commonwealth Games and has won practically every title available to him in the UK. In between them are his Rás victories in 2003 and 2005 which already earn him a place among the heroes of Irish cycling.
But throughout the illustrious history of the Rás only two men have won the title three times or more — the legendary Shay O’Hanlon (62, 65, 66, 67) and the late Paddy Flanagan (60, 64 and 75) are the only men to have achieved this distinction and O’Hanlon once held the yellow jersey for three successive years as he exerted a stranglehold on the event that will never be equalled.
Last year, after his success in Beijing, Newton arrived with high hopes of a third victory but the coveted title eventually went to another Englishman, Simon Richardson, who came away with the trophy after an enthralling contest that saw one of Ireland’s youngest talents, Sam Bennett, come away with a stage victory and six top 10 placings.
Tomorrow morning Chris Newton will line up for the ceremonial start in Dunboyne with a big win in the Lincoln Grand Prix behind him — Dublin teenager, Philip Lavery, turned in a superb performance to finish second — and he sees that as a good pointer towards a third win.
“After competing in the world track championships it was a matter of switching to road form as opposed to track form and the Lincoln was a good pointer,” he said.
“Only two other riders have won the Rás three times and I’ll try to join them. I know the roads and the race quite well. I will go into the race with my options open — I will aim for everything because you don’t go for the overall without thinking about the stage wins. Then it depends on how it pans out. The team will be aiming for the overall and obviously I would like to try and win it but I am sure somebody else will have designs on it as well and we have a few cards to play on that front.
“We will go for stages and that nearly always goes hand in hand although sometimes it is quite the reverse. We are definitely there to compete — not just to ride around — so we will be going to do the best we can.
“We (Rapha — Condor Sharp) have quite a young team this time and with only five riders on the teams it is always very difficult to control a race as competitive as this.”
Newton is one of three former Rás winners competing with three British- registered squads. Simon Richardson is back to defend while Stephen Gallagher, who won the title for the An Post/Sean Kelly team two years ago, joins him on the Sigma Sport team.
The Rás, however, is famous for springing surprises and a previous victory does little more than provide the winner with the knowledge of what it takes to win the race.
And if there is to be a surprise then it could come from one of the younger riders. Dublin teenager, Philip Lavery, was runner-up to Newton in the Lincoln Grand Prix — always a good yardstick to Rás form — and the fact that he does not have the green jersey on his back will make him less conspicuous when he lines up with the backing of a strong Dublin Murphy & Gunn/Newlyn team.
Apart from the Lincoln he won the Kruiseke-Wervik race in Belgium in March, showed his flair for stage racing when he won the Tour of Ulster and then ended up 35th in the ZLM tour Under-23 Nations Cup event when sprinting for 10th place.
Last year one of his peers, Carrick-on-Suir teenager, Sam Bennett, finished in the top 10 on six of the eight stages before winning the penultimate stage into Tullamore and that achievement speaks volumes for this new generation of Irish riders.
Mark Cassidy of the An Post/Sean Kelly team was following in the footsteps of his famous father, Philip, when he wore the yellow jersey and won a stage in the Rás two years ago and he knows what it is all about.
First ever professional teams from Spain and Japan are included in a field of 170 riders that represents teams from Ireland, Australia, Sweden, New Zealand, Germany, Austria, Belgium, USA, Great Britain, Isle of Man and Wales.
This year’s FBD Insurance Rás will cover 1,219 kilometres, will cross 24 tough categorised climbs and will feature stage end finishes in Dundalk, Carrick-on-Shannon, Oughterard, Tipperary, Seskin Hill/Carrick on Suir, Gorey and Kilcullen before the grand finale in the seaside town of Skerries tomorrow week.
