Going close to nabbing the leader’s jersey in the An Post Rás with a late attack at the end of yesterday’s fifth stage, Connor McConvey has pledged that he will keep trying to move up from second overall. He and Rasmus Guldhammer (Blue Water Cycling) are both on the same time as the GC leader Marcin Bialoblocki, and gave the Team UK Youth rider a scare when they clipped away with the day’s winner Moreno De Pauw (Belgium) four kilometres from the line.
They opened an eight second lead, but the peloton just managed to latch onto the back of the group at the line. This saved Bialoblocki’s jersey.
“Today was probably the real first day we went on the offensive, in terms of getting rid of Marcin,” McConvey said in the video interview below. “And that is the way we kind of need to do it. Up until yesterday it was all about being in contention, being in contention and not letting anything happen. But the way the cards were dealt today, me and Guldhammer made a good effort and got away. We were really, really close to pulling it off.
“If the Belgian guy had given us two more turns we would have had a time gap. In fact, he had a time gap on us on the line, so if we had just held his wheel I would be in the jersey. But there is still a lot of racing to be done until that point.”
McConvey is clear that the decisive move could go at any point during today’s sixth stage to Carlow, or in the final two stages over the weekend. “It can happen anywhere,” he insists.
He previously finished fourth and seventh overall in the race but appears to be competing at a higher level this season. He moved from the An Post Chainreaction Sean Kelly team setup to the new Azerbaijan team Synergy Baku, and has slotted in well.
“I’ve very happy. I seem to have found a good place,” he said. “Just going stage race, recover, train, stage race, recover, train. So we have got a big volume but real structure.
“There seems to be a really good programme, really good organisation and good people looking after you. I am very happy to be part of it.”
In the video below McConvey speaks about his bid to take yellow and also his assessment about whether or not this is his best ever form.
Meanwhile his team manager for the race, David McCann, has spoken about the Belfast rider’s strong condition in the event. “He has been good before but he is as good as he has ever been. He is not just looking tired after the stages,” he said. “There are a lot of tired legs but Connor’s…it is not any harder than we have been training, so he is not out if his depth at all. As the race goes on I think he is going to get stronger and stronger.”
McCann was speaking after the end of day five, where McConvey’s team-mate Kirill Pozdnyakov won the stage from the break. The Azerbaijan-backed team is in its first year and he states that he is very happy with its progress thus far.
“It is a team we put together really late notice and pulled in a lot of guys I had raced with in the past. We have got a group of guys who can just deliver results right away, quicker than expected,” he said. “We went straight to Taiwan and Kirill won the first stage and held yellow for half of the race. Then we Rico Rogers winning in Thailand, Connor took the mountains jersey in Azerbaijan, Schweizer took the points jersey and a stage. And Kirill again in the Ras.
“We started really well, hopefully we can continue to build on it and get even more results for some of the Azerbaijan riders on the team who are here to learn and progress. They are starting to show progress now as well.”
McCann discusses these and other topics in the video interview, and also talks about missing the An Post Rás. He revels that he hopes to compete in it again in the future, even though he has effectively retired from international competition.