Milk Ras Journal
(Stage 2)
Josh Horowitz
5/20/01
WOW! This is what bicycle racing is all about! I
think I had an ear to
ear
grin on my face for the entire 155 k today. Coming
back to America is
going
to be a pretty big let down. I’ll start at the
beginning of the day.
We woke up around 7:30 and went down to breakfast.
Afterwards we went
back
to the room and packed up our stuff while the mechanic
and the driver
loaded
the bikes onto the car. Meanwhile, the driver of our
other team car
picked
up our bags from our rooms and loaded them into his
van. I can’t tell
you
how nice it is not to have to lug around your own
luggage and
equipment.
Around 9:00, we boarded a separate bus with the rest
of the riders for
the
50 km drive to the race start in Navan. We arrived
in Navan to a
Carnival
like atmosphere. There was a marching band, clowns
and grandstands and
plenty of spectators. We even signed a few autographs
and one of our
riders
was interviewed by a local television station. At
12:00 noon (none of
this
8:00 am crap like in the states), we paraded out of
town at about two
miles
per hour with each team under a banner announcing
the name of the
country.
Kids from the local scout troop held the banner until
we got to the
outskirts of town.
About a mile later the flag was raised and the race
was underway. What
followed could only be described as utter chaos. The
speed ramped up
to 30
mph and hardly went below 25 for the rest of the day.
With the
combination
of riders jockeying for position and the constant
avoidance of road
obstacles there were several crashes and we were constantly
slamming on
our
brakes. In addition, there are about 20 official motorcycles
that are
constantly speeding back and forth up the sides of
the narrow road to
stop
oncoming traffic and point out road hazards. It’s
very noisy in the
peleton
with the combination of the crowds, the constantly
honking motorcycles
and
various sirens and horns. As challenging as it is
to keep up the fast
pace,
the real game is to keep your head up and stay out
of trouble. You
can'’
even let your guard down for a second or you will
go down.
I was feeling good and had little trouble staying
tucked in and out of
trouble. I immediately started to make my way towards
the front. It
took
me about 10 miles but I finally got up into the top
50. From there you
could see the ½ mile long train of cars leading
the race and also the
riders
at the front constantly jockeying, trying to get off
the front.
Feeling
comfortable, I tried a little break of my own on a
hill, which turned
out to
be a big mistake as I quickly blew up and dropped
half way back through
the
pack before recovering.
At some point after this, a breakaway got off the
front, which we only
knew
about because their team cars suddenly started racing
up the right side
of
the road barely avoiding plowing over the entire pack.
This was one of
the
scariest elements of the race and in fact caused several
crashes.
80 miles in, we hit the first categorized climb which
turned out to be
just
a 2 or 3 mile big ringer. We went up at no less than
25 miles an hour
and I
made it to the top in to top 50. Several riders including
3 of my
teammates
popped off at this point. After the KOM, the road
continued to go up
and
the pack strung out to single file which proved to
be the hardest part
of
the day. It was a constant struggle to stay on the
wheel in front of
you.
Finally, the descent came and with about 8 miles to
go, the British
team
lined up at the front and started to reel in the break
which had gotten
a
maximum gap of a minute and a half.. At this point,
the rest of the
pack
were all setting up for the sprint and things got
very hairy and very
fast.
We finally caught the break about 5 k from the finish.
I was in good
position for the sprint which was straight through
the center of the
town of
Ballagereen. I ended up finishing 44th and got the
same time as the
rest of
a pack of 125 riders (8 seconds back). 65 riders came
in after that
from 5
minutes to about 20 minutes behind. All told we had
done 155
kilometers in
three hours and 26 minutes with an average speed of
almost 27 mph. My
teammate Joe Papp had the best finish with 7th. A
local Irish rider
won the
race, with a Telekom guy in 2nd.
Tonight we are staying in an absolutely beautiful
bed and breakfast
that is
attached to an old castle. Tomorrow is a short stage
with no
categorized
climbs so it should be very fast. My one concern is
getting a flat
since at
these kinds of speed there is no way I could catch
back on and could
easily
lose dozens of minutes. Oh one last thing. I didn’t
see it, but
apparently
there was a fairly clear shot of me racing on the
evening news tonight.
I
wish I had seen it.
Anyway, thanks for all your support. I really appreciate
all the
e-mails.
It means a lot to know that I have you guys cheering
for me.
Check out the official results at www.fbdmilkras.com
