Liam Dolan took an awful hammering in a race just eight days before the Rás and was left with some nasty facial injuries. On the opening stage he hit the deck again (Photo: Sean Rowe)
Read about Liam Dolan's pre Rás crash: County man determined to ride Rás just eight days after horror crash
By Liam Dolan
This day last week i was lying in a hospital bed in Belfast waiting to go into surgery. The Rás was definitely on mind but it wasn’t looking likely at all.
However a doctor said to me: “Nothing broken bar your teeth, everything else is just cuts. Don’t fall again and you’ll be fine”.
I started back on the turbo Tuesday and did the club race Thursday night. I was feeling flat but knew I could start.
Advertisement
So complete with a first class set up with iTap I rocked up to Dublin Castle for the Grand Depart.
The team is a serious mix of youth and experience with ages ranging from 19 to 43 years old!
The atmosphere at the start was electric and my twisted face was getting me plenty of good will.
Down to the racing; all was going well. I did get caught behind a crash after 25km and had to chase for a good while.
Related News
Liam Dolan has decided to plough on in the Rás despite some very bad luck with crashes before the event and during yesterday's stage 1 (Photo: Sean Rowe)
The cat 3 climb was longer than i thought but i got over it no problem in the bunch. Then disaster struck on the descent!
I saw a guy hit the deck in front of me at 70kph and i had nowhere to go, except into the ditch.
I hit the verge hard and somersaulted over the handlebars. I came down hard on my side and breathing since has been very sore. Also hit my hips and shoulder.
Chasing back on wasn’t an option, with 50km to go i just wanted to find a group and get home before the time cut.
I did achieve that, though in considerable pain. What now I don’t know.
I hope I’m fit to start tomorrow but morale is low. I feel like in terms of luck I’ve hit the bottom of the barrel.
However I am just afraid that there is another 50 feet of crap before the bottom.
- This post was first published on TheBikeStation.ie where Dolan will be blogging about his Rás for the rest of the week.
Topics
