US on top in Junior Tour of Ireland with Sam Boast best Brit in 8th after six stagesThe six stage Junior Tour of Ireland had an American winner for the second year running but the Belgium based Americans didn’t have it all their own way. VeloUK caught up with Cycle Sport Pendle rider Sam Boast for the inside story.
The Tour is based on the West coast in Co. Mayo with hardly a flat road in sight and racing the event were teams from Holland, South Africa, Eire and Northern Ireland plus composite teams from England, Maxgear and Team GB. Sam’s composite Maxgear team was put together by Pete Kay, a veteran team manager who has taken young riders to Ireland and the Continent for decades. The team of Tom Armstrong, Hugh Carthy, Sam Boast and Dan Wheelan rode out of their skin and returned home with several good stage placings and a good share of the prize money with Maxgear finishing third in the Team award.
Sam said “I had no idea how it would go as six stages was going to be new territory for all of us. My coach Alan Gornall has plenty of stage race experience so we talked it through and decided I would give the opening Mountain Time Trial my best shot and take it from there. Joint 4th was a big surprise and really pleasing and it gave me confidence for the opening 70 mile stage. Tom and I got in the winning break with 10 other riders, the Americans were pretty strong that day and the GC battle was on”.
The first stage set the tone of the remaining stages and Maxgear had plenty to do to keep their men high up on GC. The Americans controlled things but there were stage wins for the Irish, Team GB and plenty of top 10 finishes for Maxgear with Hugh Carthy’s second on stage 4 the nearest the team came to a win. Six stages is a unique experience for most riders let alone under 18s and The Irish tour gives the youngsters a real taste of stage racing, after an hard day in the saddle, an evening of Tour De France action on the TV was the pelotons relaxation at the race’s base, the Lough Lannagh holiday village in Castlebar.
When asked about some of his race highlights Sam had this to say: “Climbing well and staying consistent on all the stages and the camaraderie and respect between the teams, whether it was during the race working together or against another team to achieve something or being given bottles from another team car. At dinner or breakfast, sharing tables with another team and helping each other against the strongest team and team-mates going back for food or bottles to Pete in our team car. Not having any mechanicals or punctures during each race made a change!â€
Final Overall
1 Awrona,Thomas  Hot Tubes. USA 12h56’05”
2 Patten,Kevin    A.S.G South Afri        @45″
3 Fourie,James    A.S.G South Afri        @01’03”
4 Boswell,Austin   Hot Tubes            @01’11”
5 Eckmann,Yannick Hot Tubes            = s/t
6 McIlwaine,Conor Stena Line Irela        @01’27”
7 Clarke,Cormac   Stena Line Irela         = s/t
8 Boast,Samuel   Maxgear Champion      @01’28”
9 Armstrong,Tom  Maxgear Champion      @01’55
10 Lynch Paul     Hot Tubes            @02’31
For the full race results go to http://www.juniortourofireland.com/ or http://www.irishcycling.com/publish/news/index.shtml
