Not ready for a woman straight away; the face of a young Robin Kelly tells a story that anyone who has ridden the Rás will know; the lads around him in a similar state. They are not called "The Men of the Rás" for nothing.
Stage Two of the then FBD Insurance Rás in 2009 took the riders a whopping 177 kilometres from Wexford to Cobh
The route was punctuated by three climbs; a couple of category threes and a category two.
Robin Kelly rode for the Comeragh CC team that year alongside Michael Hennessy, Keith Gater, Mark Nugent and Don Feighery.
Here was the Waterford man’s account of an absolutely shockingly hard stage, with the riders surpassing five hours in the saddle and battling headwinds and heavy downpours all day.
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“The photo was taken at the finish line of what was a very eventful stage of the Rás into Cobh into 2009, even though it was only the second stage.
"As you can see by the expression on my face; as Stephen Roche famously put it on La Plagne in 87, 'I wasn't ready for a woman straight away'.
"I really enjoyed the Rás that year because we pretty much had a full Waterford based team and support crew; the very same people I'd later go on to start up Waterford Racing Club with.
"This was the queen stage for us because it started in Wexford town but passed right through Waterford City Centre.
"There had been a lot of fundraising and exposure in the local media around the team leading up to the race, so we wanted to show ourselves for our sponsors, families, clubmates and supporters.
Robin Kelly and Keith Gater were determined to lead the race through Waterford, throwing caution to the wind (and rain) despite the pain they knew lay ahead.
"The rain started belting down just before Waterford. Our support car was on the radio telling us, quite sensibly, to stay tucked in and save our energy for the 130kms that were remaining.
"The radio’s were cheap nasty eBay jobs, toys really; so it was ironic that the one thing we actually heard on them all week, we pretended not to...
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"Being part of a Waterford team in the Rás driving the race from the front through the city centre with our friends and family cheering us on remains a highlight of my cycling career. We got some great photos.
"The sun came out in Dungarvan, but it didn’t help me get up the long sweep climb out of town where I lost a couple of minutes.
"The team car came up to me over the top pronounced me dead and out of pity fed me their personal stash of jam tarts, three of them, before heading up the road to the rest of the lads who were doing really well.
"I still remember the look on the lads in the team car’s faces a few miles later when I passed them again on Youghal bridge after working with a few riders to capitalise on a stall up the road.
It was day for hard men and it was one of the very hardest who proved victorious; Ian Wilkinson took the stage and yellow jersey.
"Unfortunately I caught the main bunch at the base of the climb on the Youghal bypass, rebounded right back off it and out the back of the cavalcade but somehow I clawed my way back on a few km later.
"At this point I should have been thinking of just trying to hang on and survive to the line.
"I knew that Ian Wilkinson of Halfords, who won the stage, and Simon Richardson of Rapha Condor who took the GC that year had a nice lead up the road, but I didn’t know what the situation was with the county riders.
"Needless to say our toy radio’s wouldn’t work now that we needed them. So a few miles outside of Cobh I attacked hard just in case there was still something to race for.
"There was a strong headwind and I figured that not many would want to put their noses out in it.
"I stayed away until a few metres to go when with both legs practically locked solid with cramp I was caught by the front of the bunch on the sharp hill to the finish line by the Cathedral.”
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