Wetterhall’s crowning glory

ALEXANDER WETTERHALL (Sweden Team Sprocket Pro) left many of the big names scratching their heads in wonderment after he built on his midweek escape to claim overall victory in the FBD Insurance Rás which concluded before a huge crowd that turned out in glorious sunshine in Skerries yesterday.

Maybe the victory was not totally unexpected – after all he was the Swedish time trial champion – but he did not have a tour pedigree.

In fact the former mountain bike specialist made his tour debut alongside Ireland’s David O’Loughlin on the Irish Pezula team in the Tour of Ireland two years ago.

Yesterday he was resplendent in his first yellow jersey and bracing himself for a five-day tour that begins inNorway next Wednesday although he admitted that he had a couple of sleepless nights since taking custody of the coveted golden fleece in Tipperary on Wednesday.

“I held on to my yellow jersey with a lot of help from my team mates,” he said.

“They did great work today. It was amazing. Yesterday I was scared to death when everybody started attacking me with 25k to go.

“I had a nervous night last night but I shouldn’t have because my team was so strong. They were sitting on the front all day. Here I am, I won the race by 50 seconds so they made a huge effort.

“I hope I can do it again. I will stay in Dublin for two days and then myself and Niklas Gustavsson will join the national squad for a 5-day stage race – 2.2 as well – in Norway next Wednesday.

At the end of a tough week’s cycling the 24 year old Swede had 59 seconds to spare over Peter Williams (Motorpoint Marshalls Pasta) with Dan Craven (Britain Rapha Condor Sharp) third at 1:32 and Irishman Connor McConvey (Belgium An Post/Sean Kelly) fourth at 1:45.

Yesterday’s 87 mile stage from Kilcullen which incorporated two laps of a 13.7 km finishing circuit provided John Degenkolb (Germany Thuringer Energie) with his second stage victory of the week and the green points jersey.

He got the better of Matt Cronshaw (Britain Rapha Condor Sharp) and Peter Williams (Motorpoint Marshalls Pasta) in a ferocious bunch sprint on Strand Street.

“A win is a win,” he said. “It was a nice climb on the circuit. It was good for me – not so long and not so steep – I had good legs today.”

Tony Martin, now a successful Pro Tour rider with Team Colombia, won the Rás for Thuringer Energie and now Degenkolb who trains with him during the winter is hoping to follow him into the pro ranks.

“I would hope to sign a contract in the next month,” he said. “I don’t know if it will be Team Colombia. They are a very good team. Teams have come to me but I will see what we do.”

The bunch sprint came after a tough day’s racing and it appeared as if Mark Cassidy, winner of Saturday’s mountain stage was involved in a winning move and when the multi Olympic medallist, two time world champion and two time winner of the Rás, Chris Newton, escaped on his own on the second of the two laps of the finishing circuit, it appeared as if he might come home on his own.

Cassidy, however, availed of an earlier break to claim the points he needed to claim the Mountains jersey for himself after an amazing performance in the mountains on Saturday had put him level with his An Post/Sean Kelly team mate, David O’Loughlin, on points.

Cassidy, whose father Philip won the race twice, turned in an epic ride to win Saturday’s tough stage – much of which was fought out high up in the Wicklow Mountains – and provide the An Post/Sean Kelly team with their second stage victory of the week.

He went clear in a break just 10 kilometres out from the start in Gorey and surged clear with Jakob Steigmiller (Germany Thuringer Energie) to claim his first mountain points at the top of Drumgoff. He then led the break over the Wicklow Gap before going on to claim his first stage victory.

“I’m happy, very happy,” he said. “Crossing the line, I was in complete shock and couldn’t really believe it. It was such a strange moment.

“I knew the decisive moment would be the first climb. The German guy pushed on there so I just stayed with him. At first I was trying to take the KOH points so that the Swedish guy with us wouldn’t take it off David O’Loughlin. But then we got a good gap.

“It looked like we were going to get caught with 25 kilometres to go as the gap came down to a minute, but we had a bit more left in the tank. We just gave it everything to the finish.”