Felix English: What a week!

I write this now as a newly certified 'Man of the Ras'!
I spent my last 8 days racing in the UCI 2.2 AN Post Ras stage race.

I was pretty nervous coming into the race as I didn't really know what to expect.
I arrived on the Saturday afternoon a day before the race kicked off and met with the other 4 guys I'd be racing with during the next 8 days; Paul Griffin, Sean Downey, Peter Hawkins and Conor Dunne. Paul had 15 Ras' under his belt and the other 3 guys had just come back from Europe so the team had experience in hard races. Paul's knowledge of the route and roads became really valuable through the race and helped with our preparation before the stages.
Stage 1 was quick and relatively flat. Everything was going well until I managed to get involved in a crash with 5km to go and wreck my new Trek Madone! Was just about to jump on it and go after the 20 or so riders that managed to make it through before realizing I was missing a rear seat stay... The roads were bad in Ireland but I don't think the new added 'suspension' would have helped my performance.
Stage 2 was absolute torture. With the strongest winds I think I've ever ridden in it was never going to be easy but the fact that each stage was a point to point and the whole stage heading West heading into a Westerly 60km/h + gust it was particularly hard. The stage had been planned to be just under 3 1/2 hours but our group (notably a long way down on the winner) came in at a time of 5 hours 45 minutes!
A lot of suffering went on over the next stages, with the whole team coming to the front to help bring back a dangerous break in the last 30 km of a stage for our leader Sean Downey who had managed to get himself in a strong position on GC and was clearly riding very strong. I got myself into quite a few breaks in the middle section of the race, in aid of letting Sean sit on moves and hopefully save energy for later on in the race.
The last stage was over 28mph and flat out from the gun with AN Post trying to defend their yellow jersey. It was a pretty short stage at only 135km. The finishing circuit had a short steep'ish climb in it, which we had to tackle twice. I managed to get myself to the front for the last time up the climb after struggling on the first ascent and although I slipped back I stayed within the front group. The sprint itself was only contesting 2nd as David Mccan was still up the road and took a great win, very similar to the win from the previous day taken by Martyn Irvine. I through myself into the last bend sideways at the kiwi lead out and although having to brake mid sprint after getting flicked by the kiwi rider swinging over to release his sprinter I held onto a top 10 in the stage.
Time to celebrate and enjoy the crowds and sun with the rest of the lads after a very enjoyable and successful week... or not. Dope control. After missing the opportunity to chat with some of the crowd and enjoy the moment with the rest of the team, I finished up at DC and just about made it to the team presentation for all of us to receive our medals. It was announced on the podium that I was the youngest rider in this years Ras which felt pretty cool after finishing the 8 days/800 miles and getting up in the results on the last stage.

Next for me now is lots of relaxation chill time before getting ready to head to the Tour of Estonia starting on the 12th of June. I then have the Irish National Championships at the end of the month where I hope to pick up a medal.

Here are some pictures of the last week, thanks for reading!