In-form champion Shaw ready to fight fire with fire

Reigning Kerry Group Rás Mumhan champion Damien Shaw believes he has the form to become the first man to win back-to-back titles on the country’s second biggest stage race.

Second only to the An Post Rás in terms of prestige, the four-day race which begins in Killorglin today continues to attract the cream of amateur talent from home and abroad, but Mullingar man Shaw is adamant he can match whatever is thrown at him.

“I’m definitely in the form to do it,” he said. “The only things you have to look for after that are luck and decision-making and I’d be a lot more confident in my decision-making this year than I was last year.”

Shaw is a fireman by profession, but he’s also a landscape gardener and runs an altitude chamber in his home town for aspiring athletes. He’s also studying to be a physical therapist and just happens to be the most feared rider in the country at present.

Last Saturday he studied for much of the day, but was called out to an emergency at 1.30am on Sunday and managed to sleep for two hours before driving south to Nenagh for the country’s longest one-day race, which he won in swashbuckling style. It added weight to the claim he’s a bit of a freak.

“I don’t know about that,” he laughs. “But I am feeling strong and a lot of it has been down to my move to the Aquablue team in Cork this year. I was always strong but being strong and winning races don’t always match. Team manager Timmy Barry has taught me and the team how to win. And once you start getting big wins it gives you that confidence.

“Like last Sunday there was no panic when the break went up the road, I knew I’d get across at some stage and I did and when you have that confidence and the power to back it up you can do that kind of thing.

“But as regards this weekend, I know I’ll be watched but I won’t be fretting if I’m well down overall even going into stage three, I know I can still pull it around. As a team, we’ll be going down there to win stages but if we’re up there overall tomorrow night, then we’ll think about the yellow jersey then.”

His team-mate Sean Lacey is another former winner from 2011 and says the race is not so much about having good luck, but not having any bad luck.

“When I was defending champion in 2012 I remember I was involved in a silly crash in the last 20k on stage one and lost over a minute and the GC was gone and that was bad luck. You try to avoid bad luck; race the way you always do and if it’s going to happen it will happen.”

Lacey pinpoints tomorrow’s 144 kilometre hell-raiser starting and finishing in Kenmare, as the crucial stage in the race.

“It’s a very tough stage and a big factor will be the weather, as always. There are a lot of open roads and the climbs (seven) are hard, they’re dead climbs, except the county bounds. But that’s going to be a headwind.

“It will be a tough race, it’s hard to call. You could play it safe and follow the moves and hope to be fresh in the last hour of the race every day but then you run the risk of having the race disappear up the road.”

However, Lacey insists that if his team, which has been so utterly dominant this year, does not win the event it would not mean failure for them.

“No, not at all. Whenever you’re on a run in these races it will inevitably come to an end. But what we always aim to do is race honest and if things fall into place and we win the race, fair enough.

“And if we don’t and we do everything right and we’re happy, then that’s fine too. You have to be realistic, we are in good form and we have won good races but there’s races we haven’t won too. We’ll go in prepared this weekend and do everything as best we can and if it works, it works and if it doesn’t we’ll move on to the next race.”