By Brian Canty
How happy I am that today’s stage is put to bed!
It was a nerve-shredder of epic proportions and only this race has the ability to do same.
Purely because these roads we ride on have to be seen to be believed!!
Around the dinner table this evening we chatted about our own individual days, how are the legs, what happened, did you see such and such and so on..I’ll tell you about some of the more curious incidents in a minute, but the one common denominator was the roads! Treachourous doesn't come close to describing them!
Anyway, enough moaning. The opening stage can be described in one word. Faaaaast.
55kph back the road to Killarney in parts, up that slight drag on the Cork road, into Kilcummin and back to Scartaglin. From there my GPS went blank.
I’m only happy now because it’s over because it's over and the race won't be that fast again for the weekend, I hope!
Coming into Killorglin this morning, I mightn’t have looked it or showed it, but boy was I nervous.
I had so much adrenaline in my legs that I barely resisted the urge to just go on a suicide mission as soon as the flag was dropped and take off!
Obviously I’d have grilled myself by the time we reached Fossa but that urge to want to just lash the pedals was overwhelming!!
So thankfully, the rain held off and 180 or so of us lined up and as soon as the whistle blew and the tannoy announced ‘racing is underway’ it was flat to the board.
To borrow a phrase used by the sports editor last year, there was enough grit showed by my team to tar that very stretch of road around Scartaglin!
In particular, Bryan Long and Dave Kenneally rode exceptionally well and you always know Dave’s going strong when he gives you a ‘yeeeeaaaahh’ when the race is at its hottest, as if to say, ‘hey, we’re doin’ okay!..Bryan Long, or crash test as he’s affectionately known is a cute rider and tucks himself neatly into the bunch.
Maybe he’ll shed that horrible nickname come Monday to stealth warrior or something like similar because he’s certainly that.
They were 14th and 23rd on the stage respectively and those, are decent results.
Anyway, back to that torturous road...Bottles jumping out of cages -the Dutch teams gasped in horror at the state of the pitch and got many tellings-off from the home guys when they took their hands off the handlebars to pull down their zips on their jackets! These guys are crazy!
Rail thin, usually up towards the front, beautifully tanned buttresses for legs and a waistline that’s more common at an U10 gymnastics event.
They do make this event though, to give them their dues, and on stage one it was Dennis Bakker from the Ruiter Dakkapellen team that came close to taking the stage honours – Corkman Paidi O’Brien edging him in the sprint.
I, unfortunately didn’t have a great day and finished in a group of 35 or so about eight minutes down.
When you get dropped on a climb it’s hard to take but you have to take it and resist the urge to ride yourself into a bodybag to try and get back on, which is often the case.
You pay for that effort on a stage-race like this so myself and Ryan were in that next group on the road, shouldn’t have been, but c’est la vie.
Donnacha was unlucky to puncture before the first KOH, or mountain and when the speed is really hot there going into a climb, a slow wheel change – like the one he got is the worst case scenario.
He is 14 minutes back but riding very well.
Tomorrow, such is the nature of this race and the brutality of the stage, that he could well take all that time back.
We’ll wait and see. Time for a stretch and then it’s lights out.
Thanks for reading.
Stage One, Rás Mumhan: 1 P O’Brien (Dan Morrissey/Speedy Spokes), 2 D Bakker (Ruiter Dakkapellen), 3 D Clifford (DID Dunboyne), 4 M Hennessey (Fermoy CC), 5 J Lynch (Kilcullen CC), 6 E Moriarty (DID Dunboyne), 7 A Camier Surrey A), 8 B Imming (Ruiter Dakkapellen), 9 R Jan Mol (West Frisia), 10 G Harper (Felt Colbornes RT).
Source: http://feeds.examiner.ie/~r/iesportsblog/~3/DtFGePCr6Oo/post.aspx
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