Stephen Spratt leads eventual winner Paul McCormack in the Rás of 1988. McCormack was back for the 'Race the Rás' event last month and says he is getting Spratt back from Thailand, where he lives, to ride it next year.
Both Olympians and former double winners of the Rás, Philip Cassidy and Paul McCormack this year took a trip down memory lane when they rode 'Race the Rás', a charity cycling event run in conjunction with the An Post Rás professional bike race last month. They caught up with Sarah O’Donovan to swap stories and offer a few insights into the race, and riders, of the current era.
It is a rare sport where you can break a man’s collar bone and he holds no animosity.
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Two decades ago, double Rás winner Philip Cassidy fell out of the sky and landed on fellow double Rás winner Paul McCormack, who suffered a nasty collar bone break. But the two remain firm friends.
McCormack now lives in Boston but returned to Ireland to “Race the Rás” last month, and with Cassidy raised funds for the National Breast Cancer Research Institute (NBCRI).
The “Race the Rás” charity is the brain-child of Eamon O’Muircheartaigh.
It does exactly what it says on the tin; participants race the Rás route on each of the eight stages, starting three hours before the main event. They cross the line with minutes to spare on those riding the race.
The finish line is a hive of activity, reaching a crescendo when RTÉ’s Roy Willoughby announces the cyclists over the line to rapturous applause at each stage end.
It's an event not for the fainthearted; 1,200 kilometres in the saddle, enduring a route that is devised for only the brave.
All Ireland winning Dublin footballer Paul Clarke rode this year and said completing the route sat alongside his 1995 triumph on the pitch in terms of the sense of accomplishment both brought him.
Clarke clocked 83 kilometres an hour heading down the descent from the Wicklow Gap and admits it was a daunting experience.
“To be honest I think I’m better off not thinking about the risks, you have to go on instinct and trust the bike!”
It’s a sentiment echoed by Philip Cassidy: “I still wouldn’t say the sport is a dangerous sport and I wouldn’t discourage anyone from trying it.”
Cassidy’s son Mark followed him into cycling and scaled the heights with a stage 7 win in the FBD Rás in 2010.
The decision by Cassidy Snr and McCormack to cycle this year’s charity event is indicative of the growing profile of the eight-day.
Both are confident a third Rás winner will join them on next year’s “Race the Rás”; with Stephen Spratt set to return from Thailand.
In his pomp, McCormack’s dream was to compete in the Olympics of ’88 and for his dad, Irish cycling legend J.J McCormack, to witness the feat.
McCormack’s dream was realised thanks in large part to his Rás victories.
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Cassidy and McCormack are fascinating characters, different because they are winners in a sport that is unpredictable, grueling and influenced by variables completely out of their control.
Cassidy relays the story of the race before the ’84 Olympics, the edition where he landed unceremoniously on McCormack and broke his collar bone after hitting a dog at speed.
Cassidy was destroyed by the fall, held together by bandages he looked to be dead in the saddle. He happened to be sharing a room with Paul Kimmage; who had come into some useful intelligence
Irish team manager at the time and now UCI president, Pat McQuaid had stated if Cassidy didn’t finish the race, he wouldn’t be going to the Olympics.
The suggestion was like a red rag to a bull and Cassidy grimaced through his injuries to ensure he secured a seat on the flight to Los Angeles, despite a run-in with a Mexican and a dog.
This never-say-die mentality has naturally coloured both Cassidy's and McCormack’s opinion of the Rás and the Irish cyclists now competing in it.
The 2013 Rás will be regarded in some quarters as having penalised the little guy when 23 riders were eliminated for being outside the time limit in an action described as “unprecedented”.
Of the 23 riders, 22 were Irish-based county men. Some felt if “bigger-hitters” had been part of the large group cut that such an unprecedented move would not have resulted.
McCormack and Cassidy argue that the rules are the rules and ultimately the chief commissaire’s decision is final.
Cassidy contends that some Irish cyclists have beaten themselves before they even take to the saddle.
“You have to go in to the Rás prepared to lose it and by that I mean you can’t play it safe.”
“Guys go in to the race with this idea that if they pace themselves they won’t be too far behind come the finish line and that their families won’t see them come in fifteen minutes behind the winner, as if that would be too embarrassing.”
“I never went in to a race afraid of where I would come, I wasn’t afraid to fall off the back and I think that acceptance kept me from limiting myself. If I had nothing left after 60 miles then I had nothing left, bottom line.”
Philip Cassidy, in yellow, won the Rás in 1983 and 16 years later in '99. He's pictured here in '83 with friend and former race winner Séamus Kennedy, now deceased.
Paul McCormack on the way to his second overall win in the Rás in 1988.
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