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Men
of the Rás
By Gerard Cromwell
 Since
its inception in 1953, the FBD MILK RÁS has grown into one of the best amateur
stage races in the world today. It regularly attracts the cream of the world's
cyclists and can boast of being a breeding ground for top professionals and even
future Tour De France stage winners.
Patrick Jonker won the king of the mountains title
in the 1990 RÁS and has since become one of Australia's top pros, riding at the
moment for the U.S. Postal team at the request of last year's Tour De France
winner, Lance Armstrong. Who can forget watching the lone figure of Giuseppe
Guerini attacking on the Alpe D'Huez stage of last year's Tour, only to be
knocked down by an over- eager fan trying to get a photo of his hero. Guerini
gave him a close up all right, when he rode straight into him, but luckily
escaped injury and went on to win the stage. Guerini had no such hindrance in
Naas in 1992 as he took his RÁS stage win from Italian team-mate and now fellow
pro Wladimir Belli.
But the RÁS is not all about top foreign riders
coming over here and winning our race. Three years ago. Waterford's Ciaran Power
took the overall honours. Thanks to that win and some good international results
Power found himself contesting the Giro D'ltalia rather than the RÁS this year.
The fact that he finished 5th and 6th on respective stage just underlines the
sheer class of the youngster.
Morgan Fox from Athlone is another Ras rider turned
pro, this time for the Belgian Tonisseiner team and has already taken part in
such classics as Liege-Bastogne-Liege and Fleche Wallone. Illness dealt the
former Irish champion a bad hand last year and this time around, Fox finds
himself on possibly one of the strongest ever Irish teams.
David McCann won a stage and took home both the
Points and King of the Mountains jerseys last year , earning himself a
professional contract with the Polish CCC-Mat team for 2001. The current Irish
road race champion will be able show off his new champions jersey on home soil
when he too lines out for the Irish team this year.
Stage one winner from last year, Tjarco Cuppens
also signed a pro contract after the Ras and now rides for the Belgian Flanders-Prefetex
squad.
In fact, the RÁS is unique in that the majority of
teams are made up from county selections and there are even two separate
classifications overall for teams - one for international squads and one for
county teams. As anyone who has ever stood at a Ras stage finish, and heard the
commentary of Ray Kennedy will know these County riders are regarded as the real
'Men of the Ras'. These riders are all amateurs in the true sense of the word.
They sacrifice what you or I would call a normal lifestyle to enable them to
merely finish the FBD MILK RÁS.
For these guys, training starts around December
with long 4-6 hour endurance spins on cold, damp weekend mornings and builds up
gradually in intensity until a week or two before the race. These two weeks will
be used as a recuperation period in the hope that the riders will store up
enough energy to see them through nine days of long miles, constant attacks,
high mountains, crosswinds, echelons, lineouts, punctures and crashes, not to
mention what the Irish weather has to throw at them!
If that wasn't enough, off the bike there are other
strains. The early mornings breakfast is usually consumed around three hours
before stage start to allow for digestion - a different bed each night, endless
bowls of pasta, endless bottles of high energy drink, snoring room-mates, the
everyday race to get the hot water first after a stage and trying to keep your
cycling shoes and the rest of your gear clean and dry in time for the next days
racing all take their toll on an already fatigued body.
What makes it even more unbelievable is that these
nine days are usually these guy's holidays from work! Whether you work on a
building site or in an office, I don't think many would swap two weeks in the
Costa Del Sunshine for nine days on a bike, with your arse in the air and your
nose on the handlebars for over 100 miles a day, cursing some Dutchman who's
going like a motorbike across the Connemara landscape in the lashings of rain!
I once asked English rider Fred Bamforth, in mid
stage. what he thought of the Irish country- side. He replied. It just looks
like a cyclist's arse to me!" These guys aren't here for the scenery.
They've trained for 4-5 hours a day since January to ride this race. Imagine
that for just one moment. A normal working day. excluding over- time is eight
hours. Perhaps it takes you a half an hour to get there and the same to get
home, that makes nine hours. You need to sleep for at least eight hours, and you
train for another four. That's twenty one hours in total. leaving you with a
whole three hours to do the menial things in life like eat, wash. get changed,
spend a bit of time with the wife/girlfriend and maybe get to watch a bit of
telly if you're lucky!
You have to remember that these guys do it for
nothing, except the love of one of the hardest sports in the world and the
chance to be one of the 'Men of the Ras'. To be able to say "I finished the
Ras" is an achievement in itself.
So if you're on the route of this year's race and
you see a group of cold, wet, tired and bedraggled-looking riders come into
view, cheer them on. Encourage them. That's all they want. to know that someone
appreciates the effort they put in. Because this week they're not factory
workers, sales reps, farmers, or bricklayers. This week they are cyclists. This
week they are heroes. This week they are the real 'Men of the Ras'!
Official Website:
www.fbdmilkras.com
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