Race Diary of Cian Lynch,
Kildare Hire Equip Team

Race: FBD Milk Rás, Stage 1,  20th May 2000
143 kms, Dublin - Longford.

Here we go again. Stage 1. West County Hotel. Sign on, change, hang around the car park, get grub in, move bags to the van etc.etc.

So whats with all the flash gear? Navan are sporting very Dutch/Belgian professional type gear, Carrick (Cidona, how dare I) have black and blue stuff (suited Eddy after his crash) and Meath have some lovely yellow Giordana kit. Lots of foreign teams with fancy kit too. Fierce colourful stuff altogether. What a huge entry. There must be 180 riders here today, and the presentation in O'Connell Street creates a certain buzz. Men of the Ras and all that. Rolling out through green fields….????? What crack we had after the start, that is after the bunch created its own river of p*** at Finglas. Switch galore. Crash no. 1. Motorbike on footpath collides with a couple of cyclists, taking some UCD lads and King Eddie out. Eddie, you God. Legend of the Ras, rides back on, relates the details and his frustration, and makes it across to the break. I think he was looking for whoever it was that took him out earlier on… Next crash was 9 minutes into the race. Dave O'Reilly was involved in that one. 

Now, being a part - timer, one takes certain delight in seeing one of our own achieve glory. Bill Moore was doing some savage 11 stuff on the front, with green geansies in tow. There were a few pretenders lined up for the K.O.M. at Slane, little did they expect J.P. to pounce up it on the 14. Podium. Polka Dot jersey. GOD status. " Tell me Granda again about the time you rode up that 6 mile climb and beat the best in the world to take the mountain jersey. Was Pantani in the race? " Well done J.P. You gave immense satisfaction to many today. And on with the race. Into Navan, and we are about to hit out towards Delvin when that break disappeared up the road. With about 18 riders in it, including Duff, black and blue Eddy, Sully, Denis Easton and Moriarty by two amongst them, they did well to establish a sizeable lead of up to 5 minutes at Mullingar. I had an 'oul bash up the road and put huge time into the bunch ( they were doing 15 m.p.h. while I was going at 22m.p.h. getting seriously pissed off up there on my own, before I was joined by No. 24 ( Wirsopo) for a brief period…. The bunch caught us soon afterwards. Thank God.

I imagine Mr. Cassidy was getting miffed by the gap, and the bunch was very much controlled. In through Mullingar and with that headwind, no-one was going to stay away too long. Through the islands and McCann was going ballistic on the front. The thing was that when he went, the chances were that some of those echelons were going to stay away. I was going across with Robert Moore, and just about on, when he pulled his foot. Holy f***. Nearly had our own spectacular mill….. In towards Longford, and Cass is doing his bit with Pelle Kill and a couple of others…. Pretty standard stuff into the finish, where I believe the gap was 3'30". Got to see a couple of pals at the finish, telling me that we must have been going at some speed, they were chasing us since Ashbourne, and only got to see us at Edgeworthstown!

Top dog today - J.P. 
Top dog in yellow - Julian Winn, Welsh Vegetarian, former Prutour Stage winner.

IrishCycling.Com: Would like to thank Cian for his excellent report