Rás rescue on the move: Kieran Crean was in serious trouble but for this effort encapsulating what's special about this race; indeed the spirit of Irish amateur cycling.
By Graham Gillespie
One of the best features of the Rás is the sense of camaraderie and community that can be found among the riders, staff and supporters.
There’s perhaps no finer example of that camaraderie than the rescue mission that kept Blarney CC rider Kieran Crean in the race on stage 4.
Midway through the stage from Listowel to Glengarriff; Crean realised there was a problem with his bike.
“My gears stopped working there around Farranfore,” he explained. “I was struggling big time to hold onto the group and we were struggling to make the time cut as well.”
It started to look as if Crean might have to abandon. However, others saw he was in trouble and came to his rescue.
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“I got over Molls Gap just about, and then down to Kenmare. There was two cars following us and they had no spare bikes," he said.
“I was then trying to get a commissaire to radio my team car up the road to see if they had a spare bike.
“At this point a guy from Tralee BC, Jerry McCarthy, came up to me in his car.”
McCarthy had been on the climb, handing up drinks to his own club’s riders. However, when he noticed Crean so far back the field he decided “something must be wrong”.
So he drove after Crean’s group and caught his attention on the road and called him back to his car.
Crean told him his gears were gone, leaving him stuck in a huge gear; with no spare bike to be had anywhere and the cat 1 Healy Pass still to come.
Crean continues: “I said to Jerry, ‘I need a spare bike, I’m in big trouble here’.
“He goes ‘two minutes there and I’ll see if I can sort something for you’. He came up to me again in the car and said to me ‘about two kilometres up the road I have ya a bike’.
“This guy then came out of his house with a bike and a pair of shoes for me. We swapped over, and I managed to make the time cut”.
The man who rolled the emergency bike down his driveway, on the Rás course, and straight into the arms of the very grateful Rás rider, Crean, was Tony Daly.
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This year Daly has his own personal interest in the Rás. His son Cormac, the former Irish A3 champion, is racing for Tralee BC.
Jerry McCarthy, a racing cyclist himself, was quick to give Daly all the credit for saving Crean’s race.
“Kieran and myself have finished up in the same bunch at a few races earlier this year,” Jerry McCarthy said.
“And he’s always very honest and a good guy all round. His luck was just in yesterday.
“I was giving out bottles on Ladies View and noticed he was in trouble. His electronic gear shifting wasn’t working.
“I followed him in the car to Kenmare and I rang Tony Daly, who lives on the race route about halfway between Kenmare and Healy Pass.”
Daly, like McCarthy, had come out to see the race for thee day. But by the time McCarthy called him he had driven by his own house and was headed for Healy Pass.
However, when McCarthy told him of Crean’s predicament, he turned his car around and drove back home.
He readied one of his son’s spare bikes and, crucially, the shoes needed for the pedals.
And by the time Crean got to the house the shoes and bike were waiting for him, just in the nick of time before the road really went up.
Despite having to wear shoes two sizes too small, Crean’s Rás was saved. And he was taken aback what McCarthy and Daly did for him.
“Jerry put my bike in his car and followed me to the finish and we then swapped back.
“I couldn’t get over the generosity. For the man to come out of his house and just say ‘there you go’,” said Crean.
“I wouldn’t have been able to get up Healy Pass. I would have had to walk it.”
Crean had a quieter day on stage 5 on Thursday; getting to the line with greater ease. Now, hopefully he will be able to complete the rest of the Rás.
If he does reach the finish line on Sunday, he will have the two good Samaritans, Daly and McCarthy, to thank.
Most other weekends Crean and McCarthy would be racing against each other as rivals. But McCarthy’s actions yesterday showed those rivalries can be put aside in time of need.
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