While nobody wants to see any rider crash on the Rás, with eight stages mostly around the 100 mile mark it's absolutely inevitable that there'll be some spills each day.
There have been a large number this year, with lots of riders nursing road rash and sporting bandages on patched up wounds.
The battle back on after a crash, often taking a couple of hours if the hammer is down and the terrain is tough, is an essential part of the folklore of the race down the years.
Riders have trained all year for this event, especially the county men. With their lives on and off the bike geared around getting to the start line and making it all the way to the finish to become one of the 'Men of the Rás', the determination of men to battle on after taking a battering in a crash is stronger in this race than any other on the calender.
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It's not a cliche to say that when riders fall, they instinctively jump up immediately and check their bikes and their clothing for damage before remounting and getting on with the pursuit back on.
Crash victims mostly don't even realise the extent of their injuries until they're peeling their clothes off their road rash at stage end.
One of the country's leading riders, Bryan McCrystal of Aquablue came down hard in a spill earlier this week when he hit a kerb at speed. He got back and limped to the finish in last place on Tuesday's stage 3 into Charleville.
He made light of his experience of Facebook later when recounting his phone call home to relay news of his bad luck.
“My wife really loves me. Her second sentence to me; ‘is the bike OK?’ She gave out to me in the first!”
In the images below, photographer George Doyle captures a spill and the instant rebound of the fallers just after the race had left Charleville on the 186km road to Cahirciveen, with 10 categorised climbs ahead of them.
Luckily, nobody appears injured. The interesting thing here is how easy the spill happens, how much it spreads in the group and the speed of the reaction from both the riders and support crew to get everyone back into the race as quickly as possible.
It would have been a lonely and very tough 180km riding alone or in a tiny group to the finish.
We use these photos, not to capitalise on the misfortune of others, but to simply report on the resilience that makes the Men of the Rás and the race they ride so special.
The bunch is spread out on a drag, with nobody in any apparent difficulty (Photo: George Doyle)
In the centre of the shot, a rider goes down. It looks like one of the Team Great Britain riders and perhaps from a touch of wheels (Photo: George Doyle)
Instantly those next to him, and especially just behind, are brought down as the impact ripples out from the first faller (Photo: George Doyle)
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In pink, one of the Race the Rás team hits the deck hard and clearly there are a large number of fallers. Other men instinctively dart left and right to miss it and those ahead are, luckily, untroubled (Photo: George Doyle)
UCD rider Eoin Morton comes off his bike but somehow manages to land on his feet, literally (Photo: George Doyle)
The aftermath: Those who fell or were forced to stop and unclip after finding their way blocked by fallers gather themselves to dart up the road after the bunch (Photo: George Doyle)
These are the last to get going, maybe held up a little by having to fix a chain that slipped off on impact (Photo: George Doyle)
This Alimay rider needs a wheel change. He takes out his front to show neutral service what he needs and quick as you like Gerry Beggs is out of the car and running up to him. Note the second wheel on the road; Beggs has jumped out of the car with two wheels so he is prepared for all eventualities. But when he sees a front is needed, he leaves the rear wheel behind to free up both hands to get this rider going again as quickly as possible.
From Banbridge CC, Beggs is a legend of Irish cycling. These days he travels with Irish teams all over the world as a support crew member and also performs neutral service and mechanic duties at home. If you puncture in the first minutes of a 186km Rás stage, Beggs is the man you want to see running towards you to help you. He knows to get the change done as quickly as possible and his experience makes him fast. He'll get this wheel in pronto and then push this man off to get his speed up, with a few words to keep him calm. That's important because puncturing can be a very stressful experience. And the more relaxed a rider is, the better the chance of getting back on to the bunch without panicking and digging too deep to get back too fast. There are scores of cars in the cavalcade to assist in catching back up. The car Beggs is in is driven by fellow Banbridge man Neill Teggart. A really quality rider in his day, his driving skills in a cavalcade and experience as a rider would be invaluable in helping those men they service to get back on through the cars (Photo: George Doyle)
Job Done: The teams' support crews get back into their cars and the roadshow moves on (Photo: George Doyle)
At the finish, this rider is not as lucky as the earlier fallers
Photos By George Doyle
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