 Monie
Nolan Memorial
By Dave Walsh
Balscadden, Co. Dublin, July 31st, 2001
The problem with these traditional summer evening
races, is that riders have to contend with 21st century traffic on their way to,
and during the race. In the days before widespread use of cars, how the hell did
Dublin cyclists make to the likes of Balscadden after a days work? I'm sure they
rode up and back, and finished work at a reasonable hour, and didn't have
tailbacks and motorways to deal with.
Anyway, unlike some riders, who barely made it in
time, I got to Balscadden with more than half an hour to spare before the 7:30pm
start, and got a half-decent warm up, while checking out the southern end of
madcap course. There was a bit of a cool breeze blowing, and I ended up throwing
an extra bit of balm, to get my legs going. By the time the riders had gathered,
Gabriel Howard was on the PA, laying the law down to the spectators, who were,
quite possibly, outnumbered by the riders. The race was just five laps of a 4.5
mile or so circuit, with the finish right outside the pub in Balscadden.
The vets and juniors were let off, then the 20 or
so 'B' riders, followed by the 'A's. During the race, I couldn't help but wonder
at the wonderful insanity of the course. Lined out down the hill towards
Gormanstown, we were avoiding cars, potholes, bonfires. Through the left-hander,
watching out for the oncoming cars, road cones, parked cars and the diabolic
road surface. Out over the motorway, through Stamullen, left down the dip, up
the hill, and we could already see the group up ahead. We soon grabbed them
back, then down over the flyover and through the narrow valley to the end of the
lap. I could hear Gabriel announcing his surprise over the merging of the
groups. We weren't even at Gormanstown again, however, before the A riders were
up with us too.
There was hardly a dull moment in this race, with
constant attacks, hills, near-crashes, corners. Someone was always jumping away,
and the bunch seemed to be lined out most of the time, a good thing, considering
the narrowness of the roads. The other two Ravens riders present, Karl and
Terry, were making a dash for it at the mere sniff of a hill or a break.
Personally, I was at my limit when we were lining out on the flat, but was
bouncing up the hills without any bother. It wasn't a huge bunch by any means -
maybe 50 riders, but there seemed to some pretty dodgy riding going on - I
clashed knuckles with several people, there was serious wobbling in the bunch,
and I saw one character almost bring down a member of his own team, on the
corner in Stamullen. Right at the end of the fourth lap, I was almost ridden
into the wall at the left, over the finish line. I yelled out an obscenity, and
the rider who was closing me suddenly made way, and I skimmed around the apex of
the corner, losing about 20 places.
As short as it was, the race was flying by, and
here I was, last lap, and way back down the bunch. I made up good ground on the
descent to Gormanstown though, and had to push myself fairly hard out by the
first flyover, to stay in contention. I pushed hard on the hill, and moved up
another bit. There were two riders up the road at this point, Simon Whelan and
Brian Ahern. I think it was here on the hill, on this lap, that I saw Terry
McManus skoot off around the corner with someone. I sat in a bit, and watched
and waited. Through that last slow corner before crossing the motorway again,
and the break started coming back, as we belted down towards Balscadden at a
fierce rate. Competing line-outs started breaking from the front of the bunch,
and common sense started getting in my way, easing off where I could, rather
than risk a crash.
Then the sprint started proper, and I was too
bloody far back. There was all kinds of jerky riding going on a head of me, so I
fought my way through on the left, and ended up sandwiched between two riders.
No idea I squeezed through, but I crossed the line just behind John Wall, and
just out of the prizes, maybe 8th or 9th. Ahern beat Whelan for 1st, Paul Read
took first B, and 3rd place, making up for his loss on Sunday...
daev@irishcycling.com
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