Ras Mumhan 2015

Thanks Lucy!

Everyone home safe and sound here after stage 1, and we've the legs up and are awaiting a feast at the hands of the lovely Helen Horan. Ann Horan was also on hand to accompany DS Pat O'Brien in the cavalcade, and we're very grateful to them all for helping out this weekend.

Neal was our top finisher today, he was looking very comfortable in the bunch. I was swinging at the back and was dropped a couple of times, managed to hold on in the front group for the finish though. Dick, Tom and Odhrán fell foul of a split on one of the KOHs, but they'll be fresher for tomorrow!

Not a great day for Orwell yesterday, with one (yours truly) taking a shortcut on the Healy Pass descent, and then the team car puncturing shortly after that. Pat and Ann did a great job to fix up both situations, and then once again we came home to dinner from Helen.

Everyone made it inside the time cut, with Neal once again top finisher, gapping his group in the closing kilometres for an extra workout/penance. Today we've got the queen stage, with plenty of climbing, and a very tight race sure to be aggressive and fast.

At least it's sunny?

Big thanks everyone who helped the Orwell team at Ras Mumhan. Pat O'Brien gave up his Easter Weekend (and the prospect of racing himself) to be team manager and provided invaluable support, driving the team car and looking after us between stages. His encouragement and his excellent advice were much appreciated. Helen and Ann Horan went above and beyond the call of duty, with Helen coming down to cook amazing dinners for us all and Ann manning the team car with Pat during the first two stages and doing a great job in looking after us. Thanks too to Theresa O'Sullivan from Tralee who did co-pilot on stages three and four and gave fantastic support to a very grateful team.

Neal Hudson put in a cracking ride for the entire weekend, building on the form he showed in the Des Hanlon and getting on the right side of a lot of the big splits despite crashing on stages two and four. Brian was very unlucky to crash coming off the Healy Pass on stage two, but while a lesser man might have climbed into the car, he was undeterred and even did part of the stage on my spare bike while Pat was patching up his. He showed up in a skinsuit and aero booties yesterday morning and attacked the bejaysus out of the last stage. Tom was flying, putting that big engine to good use by doing some Trojan work on the front for long spells of the race. He was looking poised yesterday and was very unlucky to suffer a mechanical after getting caught up in a crash. Odhran Connors took to the start line despite having tonsillitis and being on antibiotics, but you'd never have guessed it by the way he rode, not giving an inch.

Neal definitely had the ride of weekend, expect to see a big result once the road rash heals and the Rás Mumhan bump takes effect. Dick is of course too humble to mention his monster ride to get over the savage climbs of west Kerry - very impressive stuff - and personally I'm rather grateful for the fact that he brought a spare bike - even if the saddle is at a silly height!

Of course, the spare bike would be of little use if Pat O'Brien didn't spend the entire weekend driving the team car around behind us, and then making sure the team was fully organised ahead of every stage. It's not the first time this season he's come to my rescue, and hopefully I won't have any more work for him in future. Thanks again to Ann Horan for all the feeds on the road, and to Helen Horan for the feeds in the house (the Rás Mumhan bump was very immediate in her case!). Both of them gave up part of their holidays on their own accord to help the team, and we're very grateful for that. And kudos also to Theresa O'Sullivan, who isn't even in Orwell, who also sacrificed her own free time for us.

Riding Rás Mumhan is physically exhausting and mentally draining, and having a solid crew around you makes life so, so much easier. Thanks to all the above for their assistance, and to those who sent or posted messages of support!

I just realised I forgot to thank two people whom I never met all weekend, but were instrumental in my race. The first is Brendan Cassidy, who was working in neutral service - he supplied me with a spare seatpost and looked after my wheel. He'll probably never see this, but he deserves a mention for his generosity.

The second is Dave Tansey, who is so consistently altruistic with supplies and spares that I take his help for granted. He donated a box of food and bike parts to the team, and they were certainly dipped into by me and probably the others too. And then he repaired my seatpost pro bono on Tuesday after the race. So thanks a million Dave and Joe Daly Cycles!