Good luck to our Rás team

Best of luck lads, Enjoy and stay safe

Very best of luck tomorrow lads.

Hey lads
The very best of luck to all of you.

It won't be easy but it'll be worth it!!!
(Sorry couldn't resist adding in a cheesy quote)
See you in Skerries : )

Thanks for all the support and good wishes folks!

It's been a long road to get here, years really, and it's almost surreal now to think that we're nearly there and in only a few hours we'll be lining up in Dunboyne for the main event. I don't think any of us would have made it to the start-line without the huge support of the club, from the fundraising, the donation of time and effort and gear, encouragement, advice et. It's a great feeling. So thank you, and I hope we can do you proud. We'll certainly try.

I'll echo what Tom has said - the support from the club has been fantastic, thanks everyone for the best wishes!

Not sure about 2000 word blogs but will definitely try to put some thoughts down to capture the ups and downs that are sure to come over the next few days.

I've huge admiration for you lads doing the Rás. You all deserve to be there. Get stuck in. Give it what you got and "enjoy" the ride.

L.

A huge thanks to the Club for all the backing and support they have given the team to put them on the start line in Dunboyne this morning. Thanks especially to Joe Daly Cycles for providing a very generous stockpile of energy bars, drinks and gels to the team. There is enough to fuel a small army and there will be an immense sugar buzz for the week. Thanks again David T.

Huge thank you also to shipmytribike.ie who have provided us with the use of their Van for the week. It will be a useful asset to the team and we are beyond grateful. We will be showcasing the Ship My Tri Bike van at every team car park this week alongside the Orwell team car.

Best of luck boys! Enjoy it-am sure you will all do great!

Very best of luck this week lads!

Great to see so many Orwell supporters out for stage 1. The fans were making themselves heard in Dunboyne, all along the route and there were plenty more Orwell crew in Carlow. Thanks for all the support! It really is great to see everyone out there.

Best of luck to all the team this week. Daily highlights being provided online, here's stage I

Three stages down, five to go. Inspirational stuff. Keep fighting all the way!

Thanks all for the support - we're all home again today safe and sound

The crew here is phenomenal - Pat + Fionn from the car and Mary + Aisling from the van after, don't know how we'd survive without them!

The race went BOOM today when we turned into a crosswind at 23kms in, never experienced anything like it. The wind out here on the west coast has been pretty savage the last couple of days...

Brian, Tom, Michael + myself came home in a group, Dick put in another hard ride today to finish in a group of 5.

Halfway through, one day at a time.

Fantastic stuff lads well done. I have taken the liberty of describing how you all may or may not be feeling right now!

If the lads weren’t already wrecked before today’s stage then they definitely will be wrecked this evening. 4 days in to this 8-day epic event. I don’t want to remind them that they are only half way through it. They might try to do the maths themselves by subtracting the number of stages completed from the number of stages in the race but to be honest I’m not sure they’d come up with the correct answer. Why? They may have all done honors maths for the leaving cert, but they are all too wrecked to remember what day of the week it is, what stage it is, what town they are in and they may even struggle to order food off tonight’s menu. Chicken or fish? “eehhhh….I dunno….just give me some food….i don’t care anymore….”

Their legs will be as stiff as chipboard and these grown men will cry on the massage table this evening when the IT bands are attacked. They may also have knots in the back of their shoulder blades, tops of the shoulders, hip-flexors, glutes and calves that are deeper and more severe than they have been all season. The soigneurs will have their work cut out and also need to become psychologists, listening to the lads’ whinging and moaning about stuff. “I wanted 1 scoop of energy drink in a blue bottle – not 2 scoops in a red bottle!”

They should sleep well though right? Not necessarily. Their heart rates will remain elevated into the late evening and combine that with the stress of the stage the lads may find it hard to nod off. They’ll probably be replaying a few of the key moments in the stage…..the near miss…or when they should have done this or that. They may need to visit the bathroom more often due to the volume of water, dioralyte, recovery drinks and other liquids consumed to rehydrate.

I won’t confirm this for you but their back-sides will be fairly raw by now too. They may have been sitting in a more stressed position in the lineouts and forgot they were sitting uncomfortably on the saddle. Racing through intermittent showers has meant additional friction on the saddle so they will be applying sudocream, savlon or talc to the affected area to help that issue while sleeping commando. Then Aisling and Mary will tuck them in with a hot water bottle and rubbing their foreheads while reading the lads a story and they’ll feel much better.

Tomorrow morning when the alarm clock alarm clock goes off they will think someone is having a laugh. They’ll roll out of bed with a sleepy head, put their feet on the floor and stand up gingerly. They feel wrecked….but might actually feel surprisingly ok. Then they’ll try to walk down the stairs putting pressure on the front of the thighs……nope….that’s not going to work. They may walk down the stairs backwards or sideways. Eating breakfast may start to be a struggle too and the breakfast table conversation may be a bit more subdued….especially if the rain is splattering off the window. Some of the lads may be sitting at the table with the infamous rás stare…..that blank look into a space in the distance that doesn’t actually exist…..just zoned out of it.

Packing the suitcase again….pinning on the numbers again…..losing the overshoes again…..where’s my spare pair of mitts? Disorganisation starts to kick in, even for the most organised ex-scout leaders.

The best thing the lads can do to loosen up is ride their bikes. Hopefully they won’t fall off the rollers in the car park. As the racing begins and the pushing and shoving is going on in the neutralised zone some clown will possibly fall off…….then the flag out the sunroof of the lead car will drop and the racing will begin for another stage. The first lineout will happen and after about 20mins of racing the fatigue in their hollow legs will hopefully dissolve. The cavalcade will become mental and manager Pat O’Brien will once again start wondering what sort of insurance cover he has. Indeed, when Pat rode this race he described it as being “harder than the leaving cert”. I wonder will he find managing these eejits harder than racing it?

I’m not painting a very pretty picture of this race but that’s because this race isn’t pretty. Some photo’s may look pretty…..but the photos of the pro’s with their stupid sexy tanned legs and cool victory salutes doesn’t tell the whole story. This race is absolutely savage. Whether you are up the road in breakaways or down the back with the broom wagon it’s brutally hard and a massive physical and mental challenge. But it’s the rás and it’s an absolutely fantastic race to be a part of.

Best of the luck to all the lads and support crew as you enter the closing stages of the race. It’s definitely going to get much easier* and you will have absolutely no problems** for the rest of the week as you race back towards skerries. Believe me lads it will all be worth it and you will be well equipped to complete the Wicklow 200 in June.

Now get up the road!
Brian.

*the race may not get easier
**you may have problems

J****s Brian I'm going to have to have a long lie down after just reading your description of it!

Brian absolutely nails it with that assessment. There speaks a man who has been where I am many times and understands it completely, but is definitely not doing it right now - if he were he wouldn't be capable of such a great post. I know I'm not. I can barely speak yet alone write.

So I'll keep it brief. This is hard. Buts it's also magnificent. And Pat and Fionn and Ash and Mary are wonderful. We're half way. I don't know what day of the week it is but I know that tomorrow is stage 5. Maybe hills won't hurt as much as crosswinds because at least hills have a top...?

So it turns out hills and crosswinds aren't mutually exclusive and that crosswinds are usually at their worst at the top of a hill. This is some race.