It’s done! If I never finish it again I’m happy. It consisted off days that were both mentally and physically challenging. I learnt a lot about my own ability but also learnt a lot about the race and seen a side to it I had never seen before, both positive and negative.

What do I think of the Ras and how my attitude has developed and changed towards it?

The Ras is a UCI 2.2 ranked race. “UCI professional continental teams of the country, UCI continental teams, National teams, UCI foreign professional continental teams (max. 2), Regional and club teams” so, in sort it’s a fairly big race. We as a county team obviously fell into the bracket of “regional and club teams.” So right at the bottom of the pecking order! It was an amazing 8 days, a great experience racing at that level and being part for an event of that calliper. The Ras is the biggest cycling event in Ireland, to ride it as a county rider is both a great and incredibly challenging experience. For a lot of county men it’s a survival mission were a lot will aim to scrape the time cuts and simply be able to make the start the line for the following stage. Racing….. hmmmm

Scraping skin, and time cuts

Knowing my own ability, and a decent season to date. I had the ideology that I was going to scrape round the Ras. I expected to be within the last group on the rode each day and to struggle a lot more than I did. I based this on my results to date and the understanding and respect I had for the event. In actual fact I found myself in good groups each day and I’m fairly happy with my performance finishing 81^st overall for my first Ras. So by the end of the 8 days I ended up finishing around 50minutes down. That’s a big chunk of time in fairness. Yet there where county riders 3 hours down by the end! Hmmmm…. Well if anything  that’s a fair kicking about for 8 days! Fair play for finishing it. I think there’s actually a sportive that runs alongside the Ras and does the stages before the actual stage. Here that could be a good shout next year!  

How was the peloton itself?

Fast, dangerous, contained a fair few Europeans, fair bit of carbon and a few sharks as well! For a county rider this consisted of 8 days of dropping wheels and fighting for position half way through the bunch. I’d normally fight for a decent position in the bunch, or when my egos big and I want to ride last man I’ll “break check”, slide to the back and patrol like a boss. In the Ras though it seems to be the done thing to fight for any wheel. We developed a nickname for this, or these types of riders. I call them sharks. As they got closer to you in the bunch you would hear the jaws music in your head as they prepared to wipe you out for a wheel. For a lot of county men a race of this calliper is a new experience, especially in such big bunches and at those speeds, so what do you do? Fight for every wheel for course, once you get it drop it split the bunch and but the boys out the back! Brilliant banter….

I understand that positioning is key in a race like the Ras, and that any decent rider will fight to position top 30 wheels and hold that. A shark is smart and will also do this, they will try to hold these positions whilst lacking basic bike skills which ends in crashes, serious amounts of close misses and often massive splits due to it. The nature of the Ras was either full gas or a big stall. So often you would get the same group of riders shelled from the peloton only to get back on a few miles later once the bunch entered the crawling mode.

 That’s my Rant over, jokes only getting started

I witnessed the same guy getting shouted at maybe 2/3 times a day for basically being an idiot in the bunch and having a serious lack of respect. The same person also tried consecutively to steal our team bottles from feed zones. Which in fairness, I’d do the same if I was in his situation. If you can’t field a sufficient back up team to cater for you throughout the 8 stages rethink entering. Another stage, at the top of glengesh (large steep slow climb) as I passed through the feed zone at the top a rider was laying on the ground who had completely wiped out on probably the slowest part of the hole race. Then on the straight decent I witnessed a rider ride straight of the road down a ditch and wiped himself out over a fence. That was a good one, I even had time to shout shark. I’ll tell you this though, all those county men are hard as nails. Continuously picking themselves up off the ground and finishing day after day after heroic crashes and hours spent slogging a bike around out the back of a race. A lot of them are really fit too, probably a lot fitter than myself if I’m honest but don’t quite have the “nack” to get round in one peace or even in the bunch.

Here’s another delicate suspect. We’ve all at some stage held onto a car door during a race, I’ll not lie I did hold onto a coke can slightly longer than I should have on that glengesh stage this year where 2 of the two crashes I mentioned about had managed to split the small bunch I was in at that moment and time and I required a sticky bottle to remain in the group after being in the red for a prolonged period after the splits. Everyone does it, it’s an unwritten rule. A rider will get away with the occasionally sticky bottle. However sitting on bumpers and holding onto car doors for literally 20plus miles is pushing it. Some lads had ridiculously long arms on the last day!

What next

I really enjoyed the Ras, it gave me a massive motivation boost throughout the year and has helped me develop more as a rider. I can’t see myself rushing back to it again in a hurry though. Now that I’ve chipped round it once I’d like to leave until I’m actually able to compete for a stage or something in it. That day may never come, so I’m content with finishing it.

A massive shout out the our back up staff who were amazing all weekend regards recovery, how well the bikes were running and how organised the team was day to day!

Shout outs in no particular order:

Peter Ward

Stevie Mckenna

Ashley Donald

Hugh McCann

Sean Kelly

Timmy Gallagher

Seamus Keenan

Davy Mcfall

Kevin Mckinney

Darragh McCarter

#thisonesforyoubert #rivetrides

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