Waterford Racing Club suffered a shocking opening day on the An Post Rás, all captured in this compelling account from inside the busiest team car in Ireland.
Mishap followed misfortunate and then came the really bad luck on the road from Dublin Castle to Multyfarnham.
The Waterford Racing Club team may have one of the poshest team cars on the An Post Rás, but it was one of the busiest on yesterday's opening stage.
And there to document it all for stickybottle in "blaa head" central, was the inimitable David Quigley.
A brief update on how the race went today for the team? Disastrous.
I told you it would be brief. If you want the longer version…
Not only do we have the sexiest team car in Ireland courtesy of Brendan Walsh and the team at Audi Waterford, we also had the busiest team car today and that’s not usually a good thing.
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The first hint of trouble came at 20k into the race when Constantin Bartels, who has fought injury in recent weeks to make it to the start line today, was brought down in a huge pileup that took out about 20-30 riders.
To add insult to injury he punctured a few kilometres into the chase back towards the bunch and then to top it all off he had another collision; this time with a team car which left him dazed and confused.
Being a surgeon himself, he was able to diagnose that he was fine to continue, he also said something about being Buzz Lightyear and that he was heading off the infinity and beyond.
That’s normal after a crash, right?
I mean he’s a doctor, he would know. In the end he did very well to limp in 28 minutes down with a few other victims of that early crash.
The Waterford men sorting themselves out in Dublin Castle before what would prove to be a hellish first stage (Photo: Sean Rowe)
After dealing with that, the team car went up the road and found another Rás debutant Danny Merriman standing at the side of the road holding a punctured wheel in the air.
No sooner was he sorted and the car back on the road again than we had to stop for him again, this time with a broken derailleur.
Trying to stay in the bunch is hard enough in the Rás. But trying to pull back a couple of minutes deficit twice in rapid succession; well, that would even be enough to see off all but the most seasoned of professional riders, let alone a postman from Waterford!
Convinced that things could only get better the team car started to pick its way through the cavalcade where it found Shane Power lying prostrate on the middle of the road with his bike broken into pieces after being taken out in a crash.
Shane was asked how many fingers the manager was holding up, gave an answer that was close enough and then given a spare bike, before bravely continuing on his way.
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Waterford's finest: Ciaran Power and Robin Kelly before the start in Dublin Castle.
By now team manager Paul Smith was thinking “bad day, but at least our two most experienced riders are still up at the front of the race”.
It’s a shame the Audi S-Line doesn’t come with a wooden dashboard that he could have touched for luck when he said that.
Because no sooner were the words out of his mouth than he was rubbing his eyes in disbelief looking at former county team prize winner Keith Gater standing at the side of the road with his pride and joy Shimano Dura Ace 9000 crankset. In his hands.
It was missing some pieces and was a slightly different shape to how it started life.
Once it was established that Keith had not decided to set up an impromptu second hand bike part stall at the side of the road, he was also given a spare bike.
Unfortunately he never had a chance of being able to regain the bunch and ended up losing a few minutes. The rest of tonight will be spent in a semi state of panic trying to source compatible spare parts for his own bike.
Only Robin Kelly didn’t have a crash or serious mechanical but he and a very large section of the bunch still got blocked by a crash in the last 20k which cost him a couple of minutes on GC.
All in all a terrible day which puts us well down in the rankings.
It was one of those days when the lads put more effort into getting back on than getting up the road (Photo: Sean Rowe)
It’s a long race though and with luck we will have used up our supply of misfortune for the week.
However if you are a glass is half full sort then you might say that it was a pretty damn great day as we had crashes and incidents galore and considerably less skin on our buttocks than we started the day with.
But still have all five riders lining out tomorrow morning.
A heartfelt chapeau! to all of our riders for picking themselves up off the tarmac today and finishing the stage.
The last report I had late this evening was that despite the cuts, bruises and hours spent trying to repair equipment everyone is in good spirits and laughing and joking around the dinner table.
Except the mechanics. They look like men haunted by what they saw back in Vietnam.
At this rate, by Tuesday they will be cruising the service course at the start of the race telling fellow mechanics that they will love them long time for a mech hanger and turning tricks for tubulars.
PS: Congratulations to fellow Deise blaa head, occasional training partner, physio to most of our racers and general all round Waterford cycling legend Ciaran Power on his county rider prize today.
Ciaran missed out on his return to the Rás a couple of years ago in very tragic circumstances and we are all absolutely chuffed to see him make a triumphant return.
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