Tour of Ireland

Picture by worldwidecyclesblog

Rapha Condor competed at the Tour of Ireland over the weekend, riding against some of the biggest names in pro cycling. The third and final gruelling stage saw National Road Race Champion, Kristian House (pictured), finish a respectable 12th, coming 15th overall in the GC. Chris Newton, Olympic bronze medallist, was the only other Rapha Condor rider to finish the punishing stage, placing 39th overall.

Almost half the peloton, including Mark Cavendish and Lance Armstrong, retired as they arrived at the final circuit of the stage, many not even attempting the climb up St. Patrick’s Hill. The bad weather made for very volatile racing. Typical of the weekend’s action, several breakaways eventually saw a two-group split. ‘I was descending blind due to all the crap off the road from the bad weather.’ Said Kristian. ‘This made it hard to get back into the front group and, of course, made it pretty dangerous.’ Kristian, however, relishes tough conditions such as these and was disappointed not to be in the leading break. ‘I’m kicking myself a bit as I was aiming for a top ten finish here. I think I made a few schoolboy errors and showed some of the other riders too much respect. I should have been more ruthless.’

The Tour of Ireland provides a good platform for home grown riders to test themselves against the best in the world. Russell Downing, brother of Dean Downing of Rapha Condor, won the overall event. ‘I’m genuinely happy for him’ Kristian commented. ‘It’s great to see domestic riders win against the top pros and prove they can compete with the best.’

Kristian also revealed to us that his new race mitts were getting double takes from a lot of riders and fans over the weekend. One fan (unsurprisingly wearing a Rapha T-Shirt) even asked if Kristian would give him the gloves. ‘It’s a common problem, people are always asking me for pieces of my kit.’