Irish FBD Milk Rás 2000

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Paul Pickup's Diary

Friday 19^th May.

After having met up with the rest of the team (apart from Gethin, who was meeting us at Holyhead) at Sigma Sport, we headed of for the long drive across the country. The ferry was booked for 18.30 and as we arrived in plenty of time, we decided the safest place to wait was in the local café around the corner, where we duly sat until the it was time to meet Gethin from the train station. The crossing was a good one and we quickly found the hotel on the outskirts of Dublin. Keith gave us our official race welcome packs which included; race numbers, race programme, RAS T-shirt and caps and our own official Team polo shirt, to be worn in public at all times!

Saturday 20^th

Stage 1;Dublin-Longford; 143.1 kilometres;

Stage winner Tjarco Cuppens (Belguim DCM)

All the hype and expectations about Ireland were coming true. Yes, it was cold and raining. Had breakfast in the hotel, before the team meeting in which Keith outlined the ‘plan’ for the race. Ray and Barry packed up the cars and we all headed of for the West County Hotel for the sign-on and race start.

The race basically had 3 starts today. We started of by leaving the hotel, before stopping in O’Connell Street for the ceremonial start, before stopping again at the ESB Power Station (?) for the start proper.

With the race being on mostly main roads and into a headwind, the 172 man bunch stayed together for most of the stage, until an 18 man break slipped away and put 4 minutes in to the bunch. Gethin was the only one from the team to make the break, finishing 12^th. Barry met us at the finish with food, drink and spare clothing and pointed us in the direction of the B&B. Went into town for dinner, before the team meeting, massages more eating and then finally, bed.

Sunday 21^st

Stage 2; Longford-Newport; 163k

Stage winner; Brian Kienneally (Tipperary) IRL.

Another ceremonial start today, it makes you appreciate just how big the RAS is.

To see a whole town shut down and to come out and watch the race(not only at the start and finishes but all along the route as well) makes it feel quite special. We hit the first mountains today, a 3^rd and a 1^st cat in the last 30 miles. The team also suffered its first crash when Josh came down, unfortunately it would not be the last.

The 1^st cat climb of Windy gap blew what was left of the bunch apart, if the steep and slippery gradients didn’t get to you then the blinding in-your-face hail storm on the way down did. The race basically split into three. A lead group of 30 (including Gethin) a second group of around 70 (with the rest of us) and then another bunch of 70.This was probably my worst day, having been suffering with a cold for the past couple of days, I had real trouble breathing on Windy Gap, but managed to hang on to the second group (oh well only 7 more stages to get better in). Barry again met us at the finish and after getting Josh patched up by the race doctor packed up the cars and drove to the B&B, as it was 8 mile out of town.

Monday 22^nd

Stage 3;Newport-Oughterard, 121k

Stage Winner; Julian Winn (Wales)

The shortest stage of the race had the possibilities of being one of the fastest. In last nights team briefing it was decided that some of the strongest teams might try and split the race from the start, as most people might be expecting an easy day. So, knowing what was in store we all lined up on the front, waiting for, what felt like a firing squad, but was actually the race start. A bit of interval training later, and we had our second crash of the tour. A Dutch rider hadn’t spotted a badly parked car, on a fast sweeping descent through a town, and ended up nose diving through the back window! Josh must have been on his wheel and bounced of the car, luckily this time, not getting to badly hurt. The race split on the beautiful valley roads around Leenane, where at one point we were fully surrounded by mountains, with only a small 3^rd cat climb scheduled to get us out.

It was actually Roger who realised this seemingly miss calculation by the race organisers, and unfortunately, shortly after this, he had his first crash (and the teams third) ruining a wheel in the process of loosing a lot of skin.

Tuesday 23^rd

Stage 4; Oughterard-Listowel 192k

Stage Winner; Kristoffer Ingleby (SWEDEN)

The team unfortunately lost Barry last night, as he had to go home for personal reasons, which meant Keith going on a head of the race to find the hotel and meet us at the finish, and leaving Ray to drive and support us in the team car all alone, and more importantly, no more massages! Then, this morning, after Keith having to practice a sudden braking manoeuvre which ray couldn’t match, the two team cars had a coming together. Oops. Next up was Roger realising that the spare wheel he had was also broken, things appeared to be going a bit pear shaped.

Not only was this the longest stage of the race, but for me it was the hardest one mentally.

The longest stage race I had ridden was 3 days and the furthest I had ever raced in one day was 108 miles (today being 120).

The stage went ok, Gethin lost a bit of time, oh and Roger crashed again, this time ruining 2 wheels, I then managed to break my unbreakable Spoc rear wheel on the run in.

Wheels and morale were taking a bit of a pounding.

Wednesday 24^th

Stage 5; Listowel-Kenmare 171k

Stage Winner; Gethin Butler (SURREY)

Gethin decided half way through today’s stage that he was going to win, and so duly went on and did so. The team plan for the day was to all stay near the front for the first climb at 22 miles, just in case it split. Roger punctured after about 5 miles of the start as we hurtled along a dual carriageway. That night he got an official warning for not risking his life in crossing the road (he had stopped on the right hand side of the road), to get a wheel change, in front of 100 odd riders, and the whole race convoy, which was flying along at over thirty miles an hour! He got back on just as we started the climb. After two days of crashing Josh was not feeling so good and was doing as instructed by Keith, to just finish the stage.

The race wound its way round the stunning Ring of Kerry, with the bunch staying together until the run up to the last climb of the day, the 1^st cat Coomakista.

On the run in to the finish Gethin went into overdrive, jumping the break and riding solo to the finish; it was at roughly this point that I had my first crash of the race. With the Irish team lining the group out, there was a touch of wheels and the two riders in front of me came down. With nowhere else to go, I decided to Part Company with my bike as well, breaking another wheel, and spreading more Surrey skin over the south of Ireland in the process. At the B&B that night, the three ‘Crash Test Dummies’ as we were now called were cornered of in our own room, as to not spread our ‘disease’ to what was left of the team. At least we were keeping Ray busy. With the three of us on hat-tricks (I had a half crash the day before, after trying to be nice to an Irish rider by giving him an energy bar, I then went to get one for myself and hit something in the road, swerved sideways and smashed in to the poor guy. It was only him falling in to the ditch that stopped me from doing so!) the bets were on as to who would go down next!

Thursday 25^th

Stage 6; Kenmare-Mitchelstown 144k

Stage Winner; David Mcann (Clarke Contracts) IRE

You could say our luck was turning. After Gethins win yesterday, the team rode a great stage today. With 4 categorised climbs on the route, one spare wheel (all be-it buckled), a spare bike with Look pedals (and no rider using Look!) and the Crash Dummies with more scars then skin on their legs, things weren’t looking that bright at the start. Especially not the weather.

With the organisers placing the first climb after 14 miles it was sure to be a fast start. We weren’t disappointed. As soon as we got under way, it started to hail. Hail hard and fast. So hard that it was getting hard to see just how far the long line of riders was stretching. Dave made the misfortune to start near the back, and said afterwards that within the first two miles riders were ever sitting up or getting shelled out, he took this as a sign, and wisely moved up!

Over the first climb and a small break of 7 had got away, with the 5 of us going over in the next group of about 50. With the yellow jersey missing the split, the chase was on; up and over the next climbs (3^rd, 1^st, 3rd all within 7 miles of each other!) the group had been whittled to fewer than 30 riders, with the whole Surrey team present! This was quite an achievement being the only team to have all its riders in the chasing group (that is, if you didn’t take in to account the fact that all 3 of the Pro-Vision team were in the break!).

That night we stayed in a proper hotel for the first time since the start in Dublin. Luxury!

Within 5 minutes of entering the room, Roger and I had managed to use everything on offer! Shower caps were worn to try and work the kettle, the heated towel racks were used to dry out kit that had been washed in the bath (which started a lovely white colour and ended up a much darker shade of black!), whilst still being worn by rider, and, as always Roger took it upon himself to see just much of his ‘exploding’ kit bag could be spread around the room. Looking back, I think the only thing to get over looked was the trouser press. And that was only because we ran out of energy, and turned all our will power to eating whatever food we had left.

Friday 26^th

Stage 7; Mitchelstown-Enniscorthy 150k

Stage Winner; John Tanner (Pro-Vision) GB

Team morale was again on the way up, with the finish nearly in sight, and what should hopefully stay as a tailwind all the way to the finish in Dublin, we were looking forward to a relatively easy (?) day. During the team briefing we decided there could be one really difficult stretch, which could split the race, where the race switched direction and if the wind was strong, could cause havoc. With the Irish team apparently loosing time every day, this could be an opportunity for an ambush, Keith told us all to get to the front for this part and be prepared to ride hard if necessary. Luckily the wind wasn’t that strong, but it was still good to see the whole team lined up on the front.

Saturday 27^th

Stage 8; Enniscorthy-Tullow 155k

Stage Winner; Stephen O’Sullivan (Clarke Contracts) IRE

The last ‘proper’ road stage today, get through this and you’ve just about made it.

But what a stage they had lined up for us, 3 1^st cat climbs and then a 2^nd cat, all going through the Wicklow Mountains. On the run up to the mountains, going through a town, the local drunk was out and about and somehow wandered in to the path of the race. Luckily (?) he collapsed in the middle of the road and the whole bunch miraculously passed with out anybody hitting him! Anyway, back to the racing. Gethin went on the attack again before the first climb, and stayed out front until two riders caught him on the run in to the finish. The rest of the bunch again blew to pieces on the first climb, before re-grouping and splitting repeatedly over the next three. A group of 25 were at the front, chased by a group of 9 (including myself) and then several more groups spread out over 40 minutes. I was really pleased with how the stage went, I had just missed getting on to the front group, and had then chased over the remaining climbs with a few other riders, with the leaders in sight, until they pulled away on the run in. This was possibly the hardest stage but also my favourite, thanks to the severity of the climbs, and I was surprised by how well my body coped with the terrain, especially after a week of very hard racing. With the whole team safely in, we headed for the B&B looking forward to the race finale tomorrow.

Sunday 28^th

Stage 9; Dublin Criterium.

Stage Winner; Tommy Evans (IRE)

Keith and Ray packed up the cars after breakfast as we had the long drive to Dublin before the last stage. Arrived back at the West County Hotel and checked in to our rooms.

It seems like eternities since we were last here, but it was a relief to have made it around our ‘lap’ of the Ireland. After a few hours lazing around the hotel room, we lined up outside the hotel ready to roll down to O’Connell Street for the crit. We were left hanging around until; no not the official time of the start, but until, apparently, it started to rain. Anyway the whole convoy eventually rolled around Dublin, before we had to endure the hour-long sprint, during which Keith leaned against the barriers leisurely telling us to move up. After the race we had more obstacles to overcome, these being young kids running around trying to swipe bidons, or parts of your clothing, anything which wasn’t tied down. After the crit it was all a bit of an anticlimax. There was an official race dinner, but it was as though the race hadn’t really taken place, there was no official presentation of prizes or jerseys everyone just went home. Any way there were a few beers downed that night, before catching the RAS round up on telly that night.

Overall the race was a brilliant experience, just to have survived it was a great achievement, and the whole thing is a real love-hate affair.

You can be really suffering, hanging on in there, knowing, at the back of your mind what is still to come, but the whole thing just rolls along, and you can’t help but be engulfed by it.

I can remember having just finished the fourth stage of 120 miles, the half way point of the race, with 107 miles (and 5 mountains) to ride the next day, thinking just how absolutely nuts it was, but the only thing I could do was laugh about it and just get on with it. The RAS really is a truly great race.

Thanks have to go to Keith, Ray and Barry, for putting up with all of us, and getting us all through the race in one piece, well sort of!

The Team

Keith Butler
Team Manager

 
Josh Ansell
Gore Bike Wear

Gethin Butler
Preston Wheelers

Roger Morgan
Festival RC

Paul Pickup
Liphook Cycles

David Rand
Bournemouth Arrow

Ray Betts
Team Mechanic

Barry Gregory
Team Masseur