Adair competes at Gorey 3 Day

Vitus rider Matthew Adair took part in the Gorey 3 day as part of the Irish National squad last weekend.  Here’s his round-up of the racing weekend.

Vitus rider Matthew Adair took part in the Gorey 3 day as part of the Irish National squad last weekend.  Here’s his round-up of the racing weekend.

"This weekend was the Gorey 3 day and I was looking forwarded to it as I was racing on the Irish National team.  The race started on Saturday in Blessington and finished just outside Gorey with a total distance of just over 100 Km, the stage started fast and stayed fast for most of the stage with everyone looking for the first yellow jersey.

During the stage a break went and we had a rider in the break so I sat in the bunch and chased down any other attacks that tried to go away, so coming into the finish I stayed at the front to stay out of trouble and finished in the bunch in 79th.

The next stage was a short time trial and knew i could move up the GC with a good performance.  After a good warm up I set off and covered the 6.4 km course in 7.46 which was good enough for 20th position on the stage, which then moved me up to 22nd overall on GC.

Later in the day the 3rd stage started in Gorey and was 4 laps of a 24km circuit, the circuit was a hilly test with KOH points available on designated laps.  On the first lap I tried an attack which lasted for around 5km after attacking one of the hills, after I was caught I sat in and waited for the KOH points on the second lap which were coming up soon.  On the hill a rider attacked and I followed him and then attacked myself and then got 3rd over the KOH.  Later in the lap our team leader who was wearing the white juniors leaders jersey and was 6th overall, so I gave him my wheel in order for him to get back up to the bunch quickly.  This meant i had to wait for the team car to get another wheel.  It took me a while to get back to the bunch which meant I was at the back of the bunch going up the KOH again so I missed out on the points.

On the 3rd lap I punctured myself and got another wheel and got back up to the bunch.  Unfortunately this was at the bottom of the KOH so I missed out in the points again, coming in to the finish my chasing back had took out a lot of energy so I just sat in the bunch trying to save myself for the next stage.  I finished 99th on the same time of the bunch so kept my 22nd overall in GC

The finial stage was a 91km stage from Gorey back to the starting town of Blessington.  My legs were sore from the previous 2 days racing so I knew I couldn’t do much in the stage, so over the stage I sat in the bunch an tried to save energy for the finish to try and help our leader win the overall as he was only 5 seconds off the overall race lead.  The stage was rolling with several bigger hills, coming into the finish I went to the front and drove the pace as I had seen the yellow jersey was at the back and was hoping for some split that would give our leader the race win but this didn’t happen and I finished in the bunch again this time in 85th position after suffering from my previous effort but finished on the same time as the winner of the stage so I lost no time, but I had moved up into 21st position overall.

So overall I had a good race and we had won the best time prize and 21st overall so I was happy with my performance. "