Easter Sunday Turns Yellow For Connacht Team

Easter weekend saw the first outing of 2011 for the Connacht development team with their attendance at Ras Chonamara which took place in Co. Galway over 3 days and 4 stages of racing.

With a team comprising of 4 A3 riders and one Junior rider the task ahead of them on the start line in Oughterard on a beautiful Saturday morning would be a difficult one with several riders from the higher ranked A2 level in attendance.
This somewhat under dog status did not deter the 5 guys and all were active from the start of the 95km stage which took in some of the west of Ireland's most scenic and physically challenging terrain.Shortly after the start of the stage Barry Holian forged clear of the main group with 3 others and with the quartet working well together they built a substantial lead.

Behind alarm bells began to ring in the peleton as the gap to the front 4 grew to over the 1 minute mark. This lead to some aggressive attacking into the strong headwind for the riders marooned in the peleton and eventually 3 more riders broke the stranglehold. This trio included Connachts Tom O'Dowd who had the advantage of having a team mate in the front group. This tactical advantage gave O'Dowd the opportunity to take it somewhat easier than his 2 comrades as eventually the three made it 7 up front just before reaching Leanane. As the group left Leanane and the road steepened on route to Maam Bridge the strain began to show on several of the riders and as Eoin Clifford from Galway Bay CC pushed the pace several riders lost contact. 1 of these riders was Holian who had a done fine ride thus far in establishing the groups lead which now stood at 1:40. Up front O'Dowd grabbed 2nd place on the stage behind Greg Dempsey of Barrow Wheelers.Stage 2A on Sunday morning was a tough one, a technical time trial on narrow roads saw many riders loose time but this however was not the case with O'Dowd who had a storming ride to land 3rd place on the stage behind Brian O'Donnell of West Coast Wheelers and in so doing net himself the yellow jersey of race leader heading into stage 2B, A 95km road race which completed the same course as stage 1 but in the reverse direction.The stage began quickly and by now O'Dowd and the Connacht team as a unit had it all to loose. The attacks came from the off and before long a dangerous group containing 4 Galway Bay riders surged clear. The gap soared to over 1 minute within just a few Kilometers and Connacht had their work cut out if they were to retain their yellow jersey, Sterling work from his 4 team mates saw the gap to the front stabilise as O'Dowd done his leaders jersey proud and rode at the front for several kilometers which had many in difficulty.Alas it was not to be and despite a joint effort from the Connacht team O'Dowd would concede 48 seconds on the stage which went to Colm Laverty of the Navan Road Club and loose his grip on the yellow jersey to Greg Dempsey. Mondays stage was to be the last and the riders faced a 50km circuit race based in Oughterard. The racing was fast and despite a monumental effort by O'Dowd he failed to recapture his yellow Jersey as the final stage went to Keith Walls of the Dectek team. The race defined a new level for both O'Dowd and the Connacht development team and with this being their first outing together in 2011 the months ahead are bright, possibly even golden who knows.