Rás manager Tim Barry nearly gets his head taken off by a bottle being thrown into his car in the Rás cavalcade. This is a superb piece of footage showing what happens behind the scenes.
Here's a superb little clip - below - for us recorded on stage 4 of the An Post Rás from Dingle to Sneem in Co Kerry on Wednesday.
Of most interest here is how well-drilled this Irish amateur team is and the forensic level of knowledge their manager has about the run in to the finish.
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The team in question is Cork Aquablue; the manager and man behind the wheel is Tim Barry and the rider is the Italian Irishman Matteo Cigala.
The rider, a former Italian international who has settled in Ireland in recent years, has dropped back to the team car to collect bottles to stick up his jersey and distribute to others in the team when he gets back to the bunch.
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But in the Rás, every opportunity is used to help the riders.
And Barry - who has ridden the race more than 10 times including on the Irish team - makes the very most of Cigala coming back to the cavalcade.
When the teams want to feed riders - by handing up bottles or race food - they seek permission over the race radio to drive up to the back of the bunch just behind the commissaire’s car. And once there, a rider who has summoned them by raising his hand drops back to the car, gets what he wants and is back in the bunch in no time.
Through his experience racing domestically and internationally, Barry knows a huge amount about cycling and he knows exactly what the riders are going through on this race and the kind of help and advice they need.
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Having ridden Rás stages and other races in Kerry at other times of the many seasons he has under his belt, he is able to dish out advice on the rises in the road facing the riders on the run in to the finish, and he briefs Cigala on exactly what is ahead of him.
One man off camera - who is recording the clip - is passing full bottles to Barry so he can hand them out to Cigala.
And when the rider needs to get rid of his empties, Barry just tells him to throw them in through the open window, keeping his head well back to make sure he misses the projectile.
After no more than seconds, Cigala has come back to the car, been restocked with liquids for himself and his team mates and is moving back to the bunch armed with a load of advice about the road ahead.
These may be the amateur teams in the sense they are not professional outfits like other squads in the race.
But as you can see from this very simple short clip, there's nothing amateur about the people running the strongest county Irish teams in the race.
The Aquablue men have been very active in the breakaways and are leading the county team classification so far.
One of their charges, Sean McKenna, will move on to the An Post-Chainreaction Continental team in the next few weeks now that his college exams are over.
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Barry knew the run-in to the finish like the back of his hand and briefs his rider while restocking the guys with fluids, all the while getting the car between the hedges. This is a great little clip of what goes on behind the scenes and showing the forensic level of knowledge the more experienced personnel run Rás teams have.
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