2012 Ras Mumhan Part 3

The week after Ras Mumhan I stayed at my parents house which was half way to a race I was racing in Northern Ireland. I usually sleep very well in my family home – no noise, no ambient street lights, anyway...

4am, I wake up in a sweat – I have just had a nightmare, I'm traumatized. Usually, when you have a nightmare and wake up you slowly you realize what is happening, it was all just a dream and you calm down... My nightmare was that I lost the Ras Mumhan yellow jersey on the final day of the race – but there was no waking up from this nightmare...

Stage 4 – 110km 3 large loops, 10 small laps

On the night before the final stage, rain woke me, and as we settled down for breakfast it hadn't eased. I actually like racing in the rain, I like racing in poor conditions in general. After many years spent in muddy forests with horizontal rain in your face, racing on the road like that almost seems nice. If I can avoid training in the rain, I will, but racing – no bother.

With pretty extreme conditions outside I checked with the commissars what the rules were in relation to rain capes/over coats. I was told, as a jersey wearer, that I had to wear the jersey on top – okay, rain cape under jersey – with the look of the weather out there, I wasn't going to overheat!

Until this point in the race, I have not needed to call on the help of my teammates – today would change that. Almost from the start, my team rode on the front keeping the pace high and discouraging attacks against me, the yellow jersey wearer. There were still a couple of dangerous moves but with the pressure the guys laid on, (and one or two things I chased down) all was under control with 70km raced. Indeed, my teammates (mostly Cat 2 level riders) rode so hard they had the peloton lined out and even strong Irish "cycling royalty" falling off the back into the calvacade. If there was ever any doubt in my mind about the “power of the yellow jersey”, these guys dispelled it – each guy rode like three guys!

We reached the small circuit as a peloton. From there on, other than John O'Shea (who rode like a motorbike), my team was gassed from keeping the pressure on the peloton all day. The rest would now be up to the two of us. Obviously, there were attacks from the other GC riders, I saw them, closed them down and was even away in a few moves that I hoped would stick. Eventually, a small move got away, two dutch guys and an Irish guy. No jerseys, none of the guys close to me, or so I thought. The number of every rider up to three minutes down on me was on my bikes toptube.

It would work well for me to have a small move just a little up the road, hoping it would keep the bunch more controlled. I wanted to keep the break close enough so that with a few laps to go, the other sprinter teams could take over, keep the speed high, reel it in and get their stage win. But even if the break stayed away it would have been OK (so I thought), because 2^nd on GC was only 2 seconds behind me and with time bonuses given to the first 3 riders over the line, that would be still surmountable if it came down to a bunch sprint.

Photo - Pat Doherty

I kept a good tempo on the front with a few other riders but with a couple of laps remaining, I found out that the white jersey (who conveniently was wearing his normal team kit covering his race numbers) was part of the three person break. F**K. They had 1:08 – Dennis only needed 39 seconds with a win bonus of five seconds. I looked for some allies to help me bring them back, but I guess three hard days racing and cold rain had sapped most riders will to race/win. Even the teams I expected to ride for a sprint gave up. I was left to ride it back myself with a one hundred strong peloton watching. (There were a few riders who came through and helped – I'll remember that!).

Photo - Pat Doherty

Final lap, the gap had come down but it was going to be very tight. I was riding as hard as I could in full TT mode, coming down to the penultimate corner I just drew off the front and a few other riders came through. This corner was tricky, actually a little dangerous with standing water. All weekend, I have been very confident with my bike setup and was coming into the corner at full speed – unfortunately, my full speed was faster than the guys in front, they braked a lot, I tried to, but the carbon brake pads didn't work as quickly as I hoped. It was them or me, I tried to make a maneuver around the outside using a wall as a berm but it didn't work – I hit the wall, heard buzzing, saw stars, but was back on my bike sprinting back up through the peloton before it even passed. My stomach was sick.

I crossed the line – looked down, blood covered the top tube of my bike. I knew it would be tight – did I keep the jersey? I walked over to the start line, the commissaires worked through the results but eventually turned to me – they didn't have to say anything, I was dejected. 2nd.

Dejected

Ras Mumhan was my first goal of the season – I wanted the GC win – didn't care about stages, didn't care about mountain jerseys, I had one single goal and I almost made it. I had ridden an almost perfect race. There are some many ifs and buts with the finish and it has taken me a week to get over it. If I had known who was in the break earlier (we were given excellent time splits throughout, but not one breakdown of who was there), if the guy hadn't covered his numbers/jersey (is that even allowed?), if if if... It is over, done, and I move on. It was my first goal of the year but I have many – bigger goals – and I have a hell of a lot of motivation for training/racing when I think I'm already at my limit.

Just a few thank yous, thanks to my team for the weekend – Iverk Produce/Carrick Wheelers – you guys rode your legs off for me and you were a great bunch to spend time with – thanks and I'm sorry I didn't finish it off. To the riders for making a great race (especially the riders that committed in breaks etc... with me over the weekend). To the race committee, moto riders, marshals, commissaires, spectators, sponsors etc... like every year, we enjoyed the experience and I hope you guys got to see some thrilling racing. Finally to my/my teams sponsors that helped me over the weekend – Cycleways and Zipvit – best bikes, best nutrition – thanks.

As I said, I was dejected from it all – it is one thing when you don't win due to tactics/strength etc... but I did feel pretty unlucky for various reasons.

Anyway, as I said, I have other goals, onwards and upwards.

Link to Sticky Bottle article here, Irish Cycling here, results here and some great photos here.

2012 Ras Mumhan Part 2

When it takes me a week to write a simple blog post about a race – you know it was tough. In this case, not physically tough, just mentally. Before I get to that, I'll talk about the 3^rd stage. Then I'll get around to the final stage...

Stage 3 – Waterville – 142km rolling

I always knew that the Waterville stage would be tough – rolling, heavy, windswept roads – every year the peloton breaks into small groups by the end. The first and second stages were unusual for this race in that they were basically bunch sprints – well, the first day was a standard bunch sprint while the Connor Pass stage had an almost full peloton hit the base of the final climb. With constant cross winds and roads that continually rise and fall, the tired legs from hanging on from two days of tough racing would give up and gaps would appear – going into the race, I looked forward to this stage the most.

With Mark Dowling in control of GC (and him having 2.5 teams present to help defend that!) - it was always going to be tough. I had thought about attacking early to put his team under pressure and as we summited the first climb, the time seemed right – I attacked on the descent and quickly got a good gap. Irish Paralympic rider, Damien Shaw, had already attacked on the climb and we quickly started working towards catching an early strong break (if we caught them, I think we would have had the firepower there to have stayed away all day - the GC would have been very different). We didn't get there, but we were told the peloton was splitting and that we had a chase group just behind us. When the small chase caught us, we were about 12 riders – unfortunately, only a few were committed and after 30km away, the peloton reeled us in – job done for now.

Everyone knew the race would split when we hit Valentia Island – strong crosswinds and a steep narrow climb on a country lane would break things apart.

As we got to the island, teammate John O'Shea protected me from the wind and lined me up for the climb. I hit the climb first and rode hard – I didn't think I was going full out, but looking at Strava, I still covered the 4 minute climb 30 seconds faster than the previous two years (when I was going full out!) - as we crested, the pressure continued as I and a few other riders felt the race was being made. As I looked around once things settled – there was no yellow jersey – happy days, now I'm committed.

The group was still pretty big – about 20 riders, some where dropping wheels so I and a few other committed riders (the foreign guys) forged ahead attacking out of the group. Those strong enough, eventually caught back on and a strong group of 10-12 was formed. Over the final 50km, I did the lion's share of riding, but I was second on GC – it was to be expected and I felt great. With 20km remaining, we mopped up the final break remnants, Adam Armstrong who had been out almost all day in the break was the last. Almost immediately, Conor Murphy, Adam's teammate, attacked – I was riding tempo on the front – I was happy to see him go. He has a really aggressive, never say die, riding style, is a fellow “Monaghan man” (we went to the same school), and more importantly, he was a great carrot for the other riders in the group wanting to win the stage.

Sprinting for 2nd - Photo Pat Doherty

Our group remained riding steady, 4-5 guys riding, but hearing the yellow jersey was 2:30 back with 10km to go – things looked pretty good. Colin Parry, 3^rd on GC was with me and hadn't touched the wind in the last 20km. He was only 4 seconds back on me so I waited for his attack. With 6km to go, Dennis Bakker (hadn't rode in the last 50km!) attacked hard with Colin on his wheel, I just about got on taking another two break riders with us, Damien Shaw and Andy Betts. Dennis kept the speed high. As we arrived into Waterville, Conor Murphy just stayed clear for the stage, Colin took me in the sprint and I finished 3^rd. With Mark finishing a few minutes later I was now the yellow jersey by two seconds over Colin and Dennis in 3^rd.

Happy in yellow - Photo Pat Doherty

So far, everything to plan.

Sticky bottle piece is here and the Irish Cycling piece here. Full results here.

2011 Ras Mumhan Part 2

Stage 3 – 142km

This is a repeat stage from last year – the Waterville stage where we go on a very lumpy tour of the surrounding area and a circumnavigation of Valentia Island. Last year, the weather was terrible and there were huge crosswinds – I was in the break for the day and had a pretty good ride. Today, the sun was shining and the scenery splendid. Kerry at it's best.

A small break went pretty early, which I was happy about, I missed getting onto it but wanted to bridge to it on the first 5-6 minute climb. Unfortunately, the break was caught at the base of the climb. The dutch team in yellow were keeping tight control of the race (a mistake? Why not let a break of “no-hopers” from a GC context get a few minutes?). Attack after attack came and everything was chased. With 40km to go, a dangerous move went and I missed it. I was left back in the peleton (well, what was left of it – the days hard roads and strong winds tore it to pieces). Paul Griffin drove the pace over the final climb of the day and we were only 20-30 seconds off the break. With the main teams represented, it made sense their riders didn't work to catch it, but everyone else... Maybe they were too shattered, or just gave up, but no one came to help Paul and I (and a few others) pull it back.

With 20km to go, after I put in a hard pull, Andrew Roach made a huge effort to get away and bridge – damn, that was my ticket outta here and I missed it. Paul, hitched on and after a few km, they made it to the break. Me, well, anything I did had 30 riders tagged along looking at me. Eventually, I got away too taking a few riders with me. Of the 6 or 7, 3 of us were working – the others sat on. We were close to catching the front of the race, but still the others sat in... Why the hell did they make the effort to get on my wheel and form a chase if they didn't want to chase? A race WIN was only a few seconds up the road...

Anyway – I finished up a few seconds off the front having ridden full gas for a long time... Really great training though. I changed my position on the bike a lot recently, and now feel I'm getting very comfortable with it.

Stage 4 – 113km

2 laps of a big loop, followed by 10 laps of a shorter course around Killorglin. The big loop was straightforward while the short lap had lots of scope for splitting the race (like every other year).

I woke in the morning feeling good, my legs felt fresh and I was starving – a good sign. From the start, I was aggressive, in a few groups off the front and solo off the front for a while (hoping for some other strong riders to bridge). I was enjoying myself. After about 15km, my teammate, Martin O'Loughlin came up to me – the peleton has split – we have a lead bunch of 30-35 riders and the yellow jersey missed the split! I looked around, Sean Lacey and many other Edge riders were up with us (Sean trailed the yellow jersey by a second). We all kept the pressure on until there was a sizable gap and then the Edge team (and some others) went to work on the front pushing out the gap to a max of 2:20. The Edge team worked amazingly well with teammate after teammate destroying themselves keeping Sean and Timmy (mostly) fresh for the finishing circuit.

As we hit the finishing circuit, the gap was a little over a minute. The front group would split a bit, then come back together, then split again. Through all this, the elastic would break and a rider or two would be dropped off the back. As I said earlier, I was feeling good – in the final couple of laps, I stayed around the front and scoped out the line I would take for the tricky left hander onto the final short kicker climb to the finish line. When the last lap came, I stuffed it as I was almost thrown into a parked car, lost momentum and chance for a win. We finished 1:40 up on the peleton moving me to 7th overall.

2011 Ras Mumhan Part 1

Like last year, Mel and I took part in the Kerry Group Ras Mumhan. A spectacular stage race held in Kerry of the Easter Holiday weekend ran across 4 stages on tough roads. I rode the race for the Carrick Wheelers cycling team.

Stage 1 - 103km

I have been feeling very up and down recently, some days I go out training and the legs feel amazing. I set power records (for me) and cover climbs in the fastest time I ever have. Then the next day I'm empty – nothing to give. I'm looking into possible causes but it all started back in March.

Anyway, most of stage 1 was one of those days. My HR was pegged from the start despite my power meter saying the effort was normal (I look at these things afterwards, not during the race). I knew that it was critical to be part of the main break on the first stage to remain high on GC overall. I missed it, there was nothing I could do, the legs would not respond - I knew what I had to do, but I couldn't. Towards the end of the stage I came around a little and pushed the peletons pace to close down the break – we got it to under 2 minutes but apathy in the group meant it went out to 2:48 by the time I crossed the line in 30^th.

Riders coming into the finish

Stage 2 - 126 km

This stage was going to be a tough one. Small rolling roads hugging the coast, long drags and finally, my favorite bit – a mountain top finish.

A large crash at the front of the peleton 15km in split the bunch to pieces. A chunk of chasing and after another 15-20km, the bunch was mostly back together. The dutch team that held the yellow jersey were keeping a close guard on any moves with everything being chased down. I conserved my energy.

The days route

With about 50km to go, a dangerous move got off the front with a few of the favorites (but no yellow jersey). The peleton repeatedly stalled and their lead shot up. With 30km to go, a chase group of a few riders (4 or 5) rolled off the front, they were let go. Another 2 riders made a move, let go again. At this point, I knew it was now or never for the stage. I left the comfort of the peleton on the long descent and rode full gas to catch the other chasers. Fortunately for me, one of the dutch riders was on my tail so we worked together and I knew that the dutch lead peleton would be less likely to chase us. We soon formed a good chase group that worked together reasonably well. First we were 2:30 back from the break, then 2 minutes, the 90 seconds, then 60 seconds with about 5 or 6 km before the start of the cat 1 climb. At this point, most of the group turned into 'sandbaggers'. We were close to catching the break but all of a sudden, everyone lost interest – maybe it was the thought of the 5.5km climb at the end... Some South County Dublin riders and I kept the pace going but it was choppy (a few others would lend a hand from time to time, but the guys way up on GC just sat in!). We hit the base of the climb 2 minutes behind the lead group of 8 riders. From talking to others before hand I knew that the base was the steepest part, so as soon as we hit it, I lifted the pace and my chasing companions were gone. After a while, the break was in sight and with a few km to go I caught them. Unfortunately, one rider had attacked at the start and was 1:20 up the road from me. I accelerated again, taking a few riders with me and with a few hundred meters to go, upped the pace again to claim second 1:05 behind the winner (but the fastest man up the mountain on the day). Damn, I'm a brides maid again...

Final few meters

A stunning finish!

There are another 2 stages to come, which I'll get to another day.
Full results and photos can be found here. There are also more reports and photos on the Irish Cycling Website.

2010 Ras Mumhan - Stage 2

Stage 2 of the Ras Mumhan was known as the Queen Stage – at 140km it was not massively long but the final 80km would be constant climbing and descending over Kerry's most picturesque roads. We would even have a hill top finish on the world famous, Molls Gap. The climbs were pretty long but none steep unfortunately, still, having heard about the course several months earlier it was a stage I looked forward to.

Mel and I woke on the morning of the stage to a miserable day, high winds, lots of rain and pretty cool temperatures. The final 60km would also be directly into a 40-50kmph headwind – fun... The conditions would only add to the stages epic feel.


At signon, it was announced that the first 8km would be neutralized to get us outside of Killarney – happy days I though, less need for a normal warmup as it was pretty miserable – 3 jerseys and 2 thermal jackets were just about keeping me warm. As we rolled out, a few riders and coaches nudged me and knowing my mountain biking background said that I should really like this stage, well, here goes.

The first 60km were pretty uneventful – there were a few harder sections but not much happened. A break got off the front of about 8 riders but I could see strong climbers still with me and the peleton seemed to be motivated enough to not give much time so I didn't worry much. By the time we hit the first major climb, the Cat 2 climb at Lauragh, I knew it was time to bid farewell to the peleton and bridge to the break. Mark Dowling and 2 others made the faster trip up the mountain with me and we continued pushing it all the way down the descent catching the break just after the roads leveled off. The descent was pretty scary, a lot of rain and high speed kept me on my toes and I was glad to be with the break.

No sooner had we caught the break then we started to climb the Cat 1 Healy Pass – it was 6km at around 5% so not very big by alpine standards but the wind and rain kept it tough. I and a few of the other climber types kept the pace reasonably high on the front all the way up with a bit of a sprint at the top for the King of the Mountain points. I didn't want to go too deep early on the stage and settled for 3^rd over the climb but pushed on through so that I would lead on the long, very windy descent. I would rather ride on the front than sit on someones wheel for the descent so I took us down to the base. A little more flat riding and then a horrible drag on a long straight road. The wind was horrible and a couple more riders made it across to us from the peleton.

Climbing the Healy Pass - picture from here

A few kilometers before the next big climb, Tim Barry, Nial Delahay, Charles Predergast and myself made a break for it. By the time we got to the base of the Cat 2 Caha Pass we had created a 40 second gap. Tim and I rode tempo on the front as we climbed the pass but unfortunately Nial and Charles were paying for their earlier efforts. We slowed the pace as having those riders would greatly help us on the descent and flat section before the final climb of the day. By the time we got to the top it was obvious they were gassed – Tim and I were feeling good so we bid farewell and continued on. The break was pretty close behind us, about 20 seconds but we soldiered on through the wind.

I followed as closely as I could to Tim on the descent, we were descending like deamons and I really had to trust he knew the roads (I found out later he knew them very well). As we reached the bottom, 2009 Hill Climb Champ, Paul Griffin and Dutch man, Wim Botmon made it across to us. We quickly dropped into an efficient pace line and pushed out our gap to the break from around a minute to 3 and a half by the base of the final climb of the day – Molls Gap.

I had been feeling very comfortable all day and my legs felt great, but at 4% with a massive headwind, attacking on Molls Gap wasn't really going to be an option. Wim and Paul stopped working and it was left to Tim and I to pull us to the long climb. I was riding well within myself and as we passed the 5km to go sign wished that the wind would ease a little to allow for some attacks. It didn't happen and we rode to the top at a steady tempo – I actually rode the climb a lot easier than I would in training, but anyway – the wind was simply nuts – looking back, I probably should have tried to get away a few times anyway, but hindsight and all that...

250 meters to go and we were all looking at each other riding at a pedestrian pace, Paul Griffin led out the sprint and I followed, soon, Wim kicked just hard enough that I couldn't catch him but I passed Paul before the line to finish 2^nd. Not the win, but I would be lying if I said I wasn't happy. Shortly afterwards, I was told that I also now lead the mountains classification – I hadn't really been thinking of that but it was a nice surprise and I also moved up from 49^th in GC to 6^th.

The wind howled and I put on more and more jackets as we all became icicles for the presentations. Flowers and a nice new mountains jersey were the rewards for my days toils – I really really enjoyed the racing – bring on more stages like this.

Stage results are available here - the RTE news (Irish National TV station) had a small section on the news about it - kinda cool.

2010 Ras Mumhan - Stage 1

Ras Mumhan has the reputation of being the toughest stage race in Ireland outside of the FBD RAS. It was this reputation and the associated hills that led myself and Mel to sign up for the race. As it turned out, Mel was the only female rider M.A.D. enough to take part so she was going to have a very tough time - lots of hard training for her. We booked ourselves into the Kilburn House B&B (which was simply perfect) and then took the long drive down.

The weather forecast for the race looked terrible – lots of rain, high winds and even some snow – we packed a few extra layers and were determined not to get too bothered by a bit of harsh weather, although by the end of the race, we felt some of our tan had somehow washed off.

The stages lay like this: the first was a mostly flat 100km, second stage was flatish for 60km and then some long but not steep climbs (I had my eye on this one) for the final 80km. The next stage had lots of smaller climbs and was very exposed while the final stage was two 35km laps and then a circuit race around the base town of Kilorglin.

140+ riders started the first stage – basically I spent all of my time trying to stay around the front of the peleton but always being squeezed back – it has been a long time since I raced in a big group so it took a little getting used to again – after the first stage I was fine. It was at one of the times when I was squeezed back on narrow roads that I could see a break get away. There was nothing I could do... 100 meters back on packed tiny country roads – damn – rookie mistake. As the race progressed I got to the front and tried to get a good chase going with a bunch of attacks – at one point we had a 30 second gap on the peleton but they chased us down. We headed back to Kilorglin for a mass sprint behind the break. A crash in front of me on a tight corner caused a break in the peleton and I was a further 10 seconds back. After the stage, I was 5:34 back on yellow (It is important to note the 5:34 for when you look at how far I finished the stage race behind yellow).


It was a windy stage but the scenery was beautiful with Kerry's finest snow capped mountains being our backdrop.

Later – stage 2 (much more interesting!)