A very talented rider in his early years, Bray man Ken Tobin was arguably the best youth and junior competitor in the country as a teenager.
Having turned senior in 1994 he won a number of major races including a round of the old National Classic League.
The former national junior road race champion was selected at the end of his first year in the senior ranks to ride for the Irish elite team at the Tour of Hokkaido in Japan.
He had already won races in the green of Ireland at the international week on the Isle of Man.
Injuries plagued him thereafter and he would abandon the sport while still a teenager. In 2014 he returned to cycling after almost two decades away.
He won a number of good races, including the criterium stage at the Suir Valley Three Day.
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And a sense of unfinished business drove him in the arms of the beast that is the An Post Rás in 2015.
Despite several crashes on the way, he survived to become a Man of the Rás. Here he outlines 12 things he learned about the sport, the race and, most importantly, about himself on the longest road from Dunboyne to Skerries.
Ken Tobin wrote this piece for us at the time and we run it again today as a reminder of what the Rás means to Irish riders and why so many are compelled to ride it.
The race is coming back in 2020 after no edition was run this year.
The things I've learned, by Ken Tobin
1. Just because the bunch rides 95km in two hours doesn’t mean that that's as fast as it gets.
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2. Connemara roads are made for line outs, especially if it’s windy. But if you do the training you'll be ok.
3. It amazes me how after a 40-rider pile-up that a certain county rider that left after I departed the crash scene still manages to finish 13 minutes ahead of me even though not one single rider passed me in the 45km ride to the finish.
4. If you're hurting you can be sure everyone else is too; so hang in there and think of the honey badger (look him up).
5. It took me four days to acquire “the Rás stare”... But I savoured the moment as part of the experience.
6. It’s so important to have a laugh with your team mates at breakfast and dinner. Your moral will be boosted.
7. You do, in fact, hear people shouting your name even though you're in the hurt locker.
8. One pint after each stage does not hurt.
9. Simon Ryan's ride to form the break on stage 4 and Bryan McCrystal's effort on stage 2 were the stand-out county rider performances for me.
10. This was my first and last Rás... as a rider.
11. Had this not been my first Rás, I'd have abandoned the race after hitting the tarmac at 65.9kph on stage 5.
12. Ten to twelve hours quality training per week is enough to get you through the Rás comfortably.
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