Donal Harrington of the Mayo Centra team crashed on the opening stage last year but battled on bloodied to finish and went on to complete the race. Because of those photo, he became the face of Rás 2012 and the story that accompanied this photo last year was our most read story of the year. Unfortunately, Donal has been forced out of this year's race with illness - we wish him a speedy recovery. (Photo: Stephen McCarthy - Sportsfile 2012)
Forced to sit out this year's Rás due to crash injuries, former international Brian Ahern of Orwell Wheelers runs the rule over how the county men are looking two stages into the race. Some are excelling, riding out of their socks on the big stage. But others are flagging and for a small unfortunate band, the race is already over. Last year's hero Donal Harrington, the former overweight truck driver who ploughed on despite a crash that left him bloodied from head to toe, is one of those no longer on the race; the Mayo Centra man forced out by illness.
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Today was Monday and hence, a school day. The An Post Rás has a team of tireless volunteers who drive ahead of the race in order to visit schools along the route, handing out An Post flags and t-shirts. They encourage all of the schoolchildren to cheer on the riders from the school wall.
As a rider, when you whizz by, you are trying to maintain concentration on the wheel in front of you. But instead, you are distracted by the Doppler effect of the high pitched screaming and roaring of the school children and every time it makes the hairs stand on the back of my neck. I love that.
Not all schoolchildren are quite so encouraging, as my team-mate Aidan Collins found out last year. When racing by a school, up at steep hill in Donegal at a reduced speed, Aidan was feeling tired but drew energy from the high-pitched encouragement from the side of the road. Then, a teenage schoolboy, who was probably chewing gum, had untied shoe-laces and his top button undone shouted at him – “Real men ride women!”.
This became a topic of discussion at the dinner table that evening and we concluded that perhaps, that kid was on to something. Perhaps he will be Taoiseach some day.
When the Rás route is announced a big deal is made out of the hilly days. However, it is often the most insignificant looking stage on paper that turns out to be an absolute leg breaker. Today looked like one of those days. I think Owen Jeffries of the Derry Duffin Transport team probably summed it up quite nicely in his post race Facebook status update – “Didn’t realise a bicycle could go that fast.....”
So many superb performances today from the county riders. From the chasing group of 50 odd riders there were 8 county riders in there. I was delighted to see my old buddy from Bangor, Fraser Duncan of the Eurocycles team up on the podium in the county rider jersey after finishing in 17th place. He appears to have peaked perfectly for this year’s Rás and I know he will try his heart out to try to hang on to the jersey for another day.
Reading the live updates, it sounded like Roger Aiken of the Louth Prague Charter team was a man on a mission today. He was constantly in the attack and still had the legs to finish to the fore. He’s still one to watch and I hope he’s not doing too much, too early in the week. Aiken is a genuine top 10 contender and will need all the energy he has if he’s to challenge at the end of the gruelling eight days.
His triathlete teammate, Bryan McCrystal, was also in the front bunch today despite riding back on after an early puncture. That’s easier said than done. He lost time on Stage 1 due to a double puncture so he’s due a bit more luck. Twitter tells me that this dynamic duo are eating cake right now. You deserve it lads!
Legend has it that Damien Shaw of the Cork Aquablue team lives in a cage. Today, he closed a 30 second gap practically solo to a dangerous breakaway group of 12 professional riders. There aren’t too many pro’s in the race that could do that. I just hope he gets his chance to shine this week because if he chooses his moment and has a bit of luck he is a potential stage winner.
Sean Lacey, also riding for the Cork Aquablue team, is a rider who has a brilliant ability to get into the right move. He’s always lurking and as Stage 3 heads towards his native Kerry do not be surprised if he is in the mix.
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Devon McIlwaine of the Dublin Duffin Transport team put in a sterling performance to get into the front group today. Some riders can raise their game to another level when faced with the challenge and it’s great to see a new kid on the block. He will have gained invaluable confidence from that performance and he won’t be afraid to get stuck in for the remainder of the week.
Conor Dunne and his teammates on the Carrick Iverk team will be exhausted this evening after a gallant effort to hold on to the coveted yellow jersey. I have no doubt that they enjoyed the experience of defending the yellow jersey and who is to say that they won’t win it back before the end of the week?
In the category 2 competition Cathal Moynihan of the Waterford Comeragh team rode well to finish in 73rd position. He holds a lead of just over 1 minute in that competition over young James Davenport of South Dublin. Davenport is another talented ex-triathlete! The category 2 competition is one that generally sorts itself out before the end of the week and you can expect to see large time gaps appearing between riders.
Watch out for Mark Quigley (Mayo Centra), Nigel Forde (Galway City Nigel Cycles) and John Dempsey (Carrick Iverk Produce); three ex-internationals in the A2 competition! They will be pushed all the way by Diarmuid Collins (Dublin Orwell Dundrum Town Centre) who is finally realising his lifelong dream of getting his chance to ride the An Post Rás. There is already over 12 minutes of a gap between 9th and 10th in that completion after only 2 days of racing.
Tomorrow, Stage 3 hits a category 2 climb after only 13kms. After today being such a hard day it’s crucial that the county riders take the time to do a good warm up to loosen up their legs before the stage. The temptation is to stand around chatting to the many friendly faces you meet at the Rás but if you want to perform to your potential, you need to prepare appropriately and not become complacent. The ideal scenario is that the team accommodation is about 10-15kms away and the team rides in to the race HQ.
There is a sting in the tail of tomorrows’ stage with two category 3 climbs at 113kms and 127kms, before the final charge into Listowel after 141kms. Negotiating climbs so late in the stage is a bad thing for the county riders. Many can bluff their way through climbs early in a stage when they are still fresh but when the legs are burning late in a stage and the road rises, it is so much harder.
Category 3 climbs are some of the hardest and it often feels like the pros don’t slow down when riding over them. They appear to leave it in a big gear and they have the power to inflict pain on the rest. The county riders will be chewing their handlebar tape as they try to hang in and stay in contention towards the end of the stage.
I would love to see Eugene Moriarty of the Meath Dunboyne DID team win the county rider award into his home town of Listowel. Eugene was the first chief of the Belgian “Big Brother” house for number of years from 2002. That was the beginning of the project that has today become the An Post Chain Reaction Team.
Can you imagine trying to look after a group of up to 15 hyper overenthusiastic lunatic cyclists in a house at one time? Ask him about Mr Fraser Duncan! I’m not sure I ever thanked him... so thank you Eugene, for helping me and so many other young riders gain invaluable experience of racing abroad.
If Eugene doesn’t win the county rider award, I think Sean Lacey or Damian Shaw will do the business.
Spare a thought this evening for the poor guys who have already gone home. Last years’ Stage 1 hero Donal Harrington of the Mayo Centra team won’t get the chance to race through his native Castletownbere after a night of illness.
He must have been pretty bad to pull out considering what he battled through 12 months ago. Padhraic Forde of the Galway team was also a non-starter and Ray O’Shaughnessy of the Louth team was forced to pull out by the race doctor after a crash. I have no doubt that all of those guys are gutted this evening having trained so hard and having made massive sacrifices. They will be bitterly disappointed to be heading home after only two stages.
Thanks for reading,
Brian
@ahernb
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