Matt Wilson, the 2004 Australian national road champion, won the King of the Mountains title Sunday at the Tour of Ireland. Each day of the race, he was filing exclusive daily diaries for Bicycles Network Australia. As the captain of Team Type 1, Wilson is one of seven riders on the team that has a mission to raise awareness about diabetes and inspire those affected by the diabetes. This is his final entry.
A Difficult Final Day
Today was a rainy, cold, terrible day from the outset. Breaks were going from the start and both the guys who were challenging me, were attacking from the start, which made things very tough.
We managed to control it pretty well until the halfway point, when the South African who was third overall in the King of the Mountains competition got in a breakaway. So obviously we had to shut that down very quickly. The guys did a great job pulling them back before the circuits of St. Patrick’s Hill. Then, it was just a matter of seeing what I could do on them.
I never did get word that they shortened the race by a lap. I was gearing up for another lap and then Vassili told me it was three kilometers to go. So the fact that there was only KOM sprint would have been important to know.
You go into these races with the best expectations and unless you win everything you go away partly disappointed. But I have to be happy the way it went in the end. It was great for the team and I’m very happy.