Eoin Morton may have gone down, but he didn't go out; he smashed his face into a pothole on the Rás but continued on and finished the race on Sunday - fair play. (Photo published here with Eoin's permission and courtesy of @ucd_cycling)
Having missed the Rás through injury, Brian Ahern joined stickybottle as a columnist and county rider analyst last week, for what will hopefully prove the first series of dispatches in an ongoing relationship with us. In his final Rás 2013 column, he singles out some of the best county rider performances towards the back end of the race, and brings us the story of Eoin Morton's determination to finish what he started.
Rás 2013 raced to its conclusion on Sunday under glorious sunshine, as riders were cheered by massive crowds lining the streets of Skerries in north Co Dublin. It really was a wonderful atmosphere; one that made me want to be out there on my bike rather than watching from the sideline.
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The peloton faced a headwind for much of the stage, which was good news for the county riders. Those sitting in the bunch were sheltered from the wind while those at the front of the peloton were working hard to ride at a tempo, but at a reduced speed.
The battle to wrestle the yellow Jersey from the Marcin Biablocki’s back only really commenced once the riders hit the Black Hills in Skerries. So the early part of the race was open to plenty of attacks from those lower on general classification.
There were a number of super performances from the county riders who went on the offensive on Sunday.
Despite only taking up road racing in 2008, Colin Robinson of Stamullen M. Donnelly is the owner of a Rás mountains jersey that he won on stage 1 in 2009. That jersey is now proudly hanging in his living room. He’s a rider who excels in the long, hard, hillier races in cold dirty weather.
He’s an ex-international cross-country runner who is a member of the Army and he eats kettle-bells for breakfast. He’s well known for his strict training regime and he has two pet rabbits he calls Sampras & Agassi.
Fraser Duncan of Eurocycles won the county rider award on stage 2 and was on the offensive again on the final stage. Back in his junior racing days, Fraser spent a period of time racing in Belgium and was the coolest dude in the peloton, sporting a dyed blonde Mohawk hairstyle. We can expect more wins from Fraser throughout the remainder of the 2013 season.
Eoin Morton of UCD is some man.
He had an horrific crash on stage 6 when he face-planted a pot-hole, breaking his nose. He would have been forgiven for climbing into the ambulance and not getting out. But Morton continued in the race, bloodied, battered and bruised and recovered sufficiently well to go on the offensive on stage 8.
Morton was an A4 rider at the start of the 2012 season and his progression through the ranks has been quite remarkable. He finished 3rd in the Shay Elliot Memorial two weeks ago and has proven this week that was no fluke. His father, Peter was an ex-international cyclist and Morton junior is clearly blessed with good genes. Expect more from Morton junior in Rás 2014.
Simon Ryan of visitnenagh.ie put in the performance of a lifetime on Sunday. In 2012 he was agonisingly listed as a DNF on stage 8 but on Sunday he put things right. The young Tipperary man managed to bridge across to the established breakaway, making it five up front for most of the day.
Unfortunately, he ran out of steam on the approach to the Black Hills into Skerries, but he should take massive confidence from that performance. He’s another rider from whom we can expect big things in 2014.
Obviously enough, Roger Aiken took the overall county rider honours and nobody can deny that he deserves it. He’s an enigma!
After showing good form at the Tour of Ulster, I immediately made him favourite for this title as I was aware that he is quite simply, a different class. He finished top county rider on stage 8 for the 3rd time this week and he was the only county rider to make the decisive front split of 25 riders on the final stage.
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His 8th place on GC is a brilliant result but what’s most impressive is the manner in which he raced this week - always riding with such an aggressive attitude. I wonder how many road riders will be buying cyclo-cross bikes this winter.
There was no change at the top of the A2 category as John Dempsey of the Carrick Iverk Produce team wrapped up that competition.
The Aquablue team won the county team prize award. The team have dominated many of the domestic races this season winning the general classification in both the Rás Mumhan and the Tour of Ulster. They are a quality outfit in spite of having the oldest man in the race; 42-year-old Joe Fenlon. What a magnificent achievement!
The days after the Rás can have a strange feeling - a bit like the bubble you’ve been living in has just burst. You get out of bed feeling sore. You have a sore neck, sore shoulders, sore lower back, sore hips and sore legs. You may suffer headaches and nausea and you struggle to walk from the kitchen to the living-room.
Your legs may jolt into a cramp at any time and you need sleep and lots of it. You may find yourself lying in bed re-playing sections of the race; a key line-out, when you rode across to the break, when you narrowly avoided crashing or worse, when you crashed questioning should you have been able to avoid it?
You continue to eat a ridiculous amount of food. Good food, bad food, any type of food. The fridge is constantly being re-stocked. You may go for a few celebratory pints only to find out that you’re falling asleep after two drinks.
For years to come, you will drive on roads that you travelled on while on the Rás, and you will get flashbacks and replay the race scenario in your head. You will be pushing a little harder on the accelerator imagining yourself putting the pressure on, attacking off the front.
You will have told your wife so many times about this stage and that stage that you feel you no longer want to bore her with your stories so you say nothing. Then she’ll say “You’re pretending you’re riding the Rás again, aren’t you?” - Yep! I hope I never grow up.
One of the worst things you can do to recover is to do nothing. It’s very important to get enough sleep to help recovery. But it’s equally important to try to keep the legs moving so you don’t allow your body to seize up.
Those fortunate enough to get through the week without illness or incident can look forward to having super form in a few weeks time. Those who suffered illness or injury need to ensure they recover sufficiently so they can start to rebuild form as soon as possible. Once recovered, they will find they reach a new level of form really quickly.
On one hand you are delighted it’s over. On the other hand you miss the buzz of it. Right now you may be telling people - “I’m never doing that ever again”. In a few weeks time you’ll start training for next year.
Regardless, in the future you will always say it was harder in your day. You are now a Man of the Rás.
Thanks for reading; it’s been a pleasure writing.
Keep her county!
Brian
@ahernb
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