Giro Diary: Stage Seventeen

If you ever wondered why Danilo Di Luca is nicknamed The Killer, one look at him today on the closing kilometres of the Blockhaus would put you in no doubt. Teeth clenched and wild eyed, he had all the look of a rampaging murderer. Di Luca was going at full gas, once again trying to seize this Giro by the sheer force of his own will.

Up the road was Franco Pellizotti of Liquigas, who after appearing dead and buried on Monday had attacked on the lower slopes in attempt to put himself back into the race. Behind him were several of his key rivals, including Pellizotti’s team mate Ivan Basso and Cervelo’s Carlos Sastre. And glued limpet-like to his wheel was race leader Denis Menchov, who held a slim 39 second advantage over him. Di Luca had to limit the time Pellizotti gained, increase his advantage over the chasing riders and somehow try to shake off Menchov. Such was the fierceness of his riding, that it was easy to believe he could accomplish all three, were it not for the the fact that Menchov appeared stony faced and unflappable as he tracked his rival to the top of the Blockhaus.

Di Luca has ridden this Giro the hard way, always at the front, always on the hunt for stage wins or podium positions to eek out those bonus seconds. He has appeared almost indestructible and it’s almost impossible to believe that a rider can go so hard for two and a half weeks and never show signs of cracking. Somehow he has.

Pellizotti though held on for his stage win and took 40 odd seconds from Di Luca and Menchov. It was good enough to put him put to third place overall, but not enough to really threaten the leading duo, since he finished the day a full two minutes behind Menchov in the overall. Pellizotti though made a serious statement today. While he was largely anonymous for the past few stages, his team mate Basso attacked twice and didn’t make much from it. When Pellizotti went today, he made it count.

If Pellizotti gained the most today, Carlos Sastre was the big loser, finishing 1:19 behind Menchov. Now back in fifth in the overall and 3:30 behind Menchov his slim chance of victory is more or less gone. Yet somehow this adds to Sastre’s appeal as a rider. He’s good, but has feet of clay and paid the price of his big attack on Monday by suffering today. Sastre spent much of the final kilometres riding with Lance Armstrong, who once again looked incredibly strong. Although he caught up with Armstrong by the end of the stage, his team mate Levi Leipheimer had another miserable day in the saddle. His chance of even a podium spot now appears gone for good.

While Pellizotti won the stage, Di Luca, Menchov and a resurgent Stefano Garzelli fought it out for second. Garzelli proved to have the fresher legs adding more points to his already commanding lead in the mountains classification. Di Luca though managed to put a few bike lengths into Menchov and grab the bonus seconds for third place. The gap now stands at 26 seconds between the pair. Those few seconds won’t make a massive difference but the important thing is that Di Luca has seen a chink in Menchov’s hitherto impregnable facade. Having complained on Monday about how it was impossible to break him, Di Luca now knows that maybe a well time attack on the slopes of Mount Vesusvius could give him what he needs.

Giro Diary: Stage Sixteen

Off the top of the penultimate climb of the day, Yaroslav Popovych seizes his opportunity and attacks. He, Damiano Cunego and LPR’s Gabriele Bosisio are all that’s left of the day’s break. Popovych is once again riding like his old self. Some excellent rides at the Giro in his early years saw him transfer to Lance Armstrong’s Discovery team. Although briefly touted as perhaps the next big thing, Popovych carved out a niche for himself as an incredibly able domestique. Last year he transferred to Lotto to fill the same role for Cadel Evans and was largely anonymous, dropping off the back of the bunch any time the pace went up in the mountains. This year he is back back with Armstrong and directeur sportif Johan Bruyneel at Astana and riding strongly again. Go figure.

Behind him Damiano Cunego is the one who responds. Usually a good descender, Cunego is struggling to bridge the gap. Today is his big hope of a stage win and salvaging something from what’s been a poor Giro by his standards. Indeed, to date, his most notable contribution to the race has been some slightly cryptic commentary in the press. After some earlier comments about riding with a “clear conscience”, he was back in the media again last week, speaking about how fast the race was this year. “Clearly there are others who are going stronger than me. I am giving 110 percent, and evidently it is not enough. But why do I need to worry, it is bicycle racing and there are other things in life,” he said.

Behind them, the race for the overall classification is beginning to come to the boil. The main bunch has already thinned out considerably by the top of the climb and as they approach the day’s final climb at Monte Petrano, race leader Denis Menchov’s Rabobank team are on the front.

Ivan Basso is the first to go, tracked by Menchov and Di Luca. Everyone else looks to be cooked, but as the pace slows riders begin to bridge across. Carlos Sastre, who just a moment ago looked to be in trouble, then makes his move. The first time he gets a response, the second he’s let go. Basso is the only one who tries to follow getting a gap on the chasers but still a fair bit behind the Spaniard.

Bridging up to Menchov and Di Luca is Lance Armstrong. However, his team leader Levi Leipheimer is nowhere to be seen. Inevitably, Armstrong has to drop back to wait for the struggling Leipheimer and try to pace him up the climb to limit his losses. Today is the day that the Giro slipped away from Leipheimer. The favourite almost by default at the start, since there were question marks over the form of many other contenders, the American has proved once again that he isn’t really in the top tier of riders. Armstrong, who looked well off the pace in the first half of the race is now looking ominous and appears to be riding himself into the form that would see him classed as a threat in the Tour, something which is almost unbelievable when you consider his age and the length of time he has been away from the sport.

Sastre meanwhile has caught and passed Cunego and Popovych, who have both finally succumbed to the combination of a tough stage and unyielding heat. The stage win is now his and while his gap isn’t significant, the time bonuses for the win mean that he has taken back 41 seconds from Menchov. With Leipheimer and Pellizotti blowing up, he is now up to third overall. Still 2 minutes and 19 seconds back from Menchov, he will have to attack again in the coming days if he is to take the pink jersey.

Behind him, Menchov and Di Luca catch Basso, who has been trying hard to ride himself back into contention. Basso has proven over the past two days that he is still a force to be reckoned with and finishes the day only 11 seconds behind his wilting team mate Pellizotti in the overall classification. But his riding is stil a far cry from 2006, when he won the Giro Terminator style, with over nine minutes advantage on the second placed rider.

Menchov meanwhile has played a clever game. Putting two team mates into the break meant they could drop back and help him on the approach to Monte Petrano. He doesn’t panic when Sastre attacks, since the Spaniard was three minutes down and he could afford to let him away. Instead, he sticks with Di Luca, who after the collapse of Leipheimer is his closest rival. Any time Di Luca attacks, Menchov rides right up to his wheel. Even at the close of the stage, Menchov sprints past him to take second and extend his gap over the Italian slightly. Di Luca’s peformance though has been unreal. Not a natural in the big mountains or in the time trial, he has stayed up there against all odds again this year. His only hope is that Menchov has a bad day, yet so far the Russian has looked untouchable.

Giro Diary: Stage Twelve

Yesterday’s time trial, as expected, did bring about signficant changes to the overall classification and threw up some surprises too. Denis Menchov proved the strongest man on the day, taking the win ahead of pre-stage favourite Levi Leipheimer and a surprisingly fast Stefano Garzelli. Here’s how the overall contenders shaped up against eachother yesterday:

0.00 Denis Menchov
0.20 Levi Leipheimer
1.27 Franco Pellizotti
1.54 Danilo Di Luca
2.17 Ivan Basso
2.18 Carlos Sastre
2.46 Michael Rogers

And here’s how the overall classification looked after the stage:

0.00 Denis Menchov
0.34 Danilo Di Luca
0.40 Levi Leipheimer
2.00 Franco Pellizotti
2.52 Carlos Sastre
2.59 Michael Rogers
3.00 Ivan Basso

Let’s see how the result might affect affect the race for the overall classification.

1. Denis Menchov
The Russian now is holding most of the aces. Although his lead is relatively narrow, the remainder of the race holds three more mountain top finishes and a short, 15km time trial. Menchov has proven already that he has brought his climbing legs to the Giro, riding away from everyone else on the first serious mountain top finish on stage five. It will be hard to put time into him and indeed Menchov may very well go on the attack himself to solidfy his lead. Yet Menchov has been known to have a bad day and crack on a big mountain stage, such as on Alpe d’Huez in last year’s Tour de France. That combined with his slender lead means that victory isn’t in the bag just yet.

2. Levi Leipheimer
Although he came second, yesterday was something of a bad day at the office for the American. Why? His surest route to victory was a resounding win in the time trial and then protecting his lead for the rest of the race. Leipheimer can climb but is more of a man who just follows wheels in the mountains. Astana will no doubt drill it up the climbs, hoping to burn Menchov (and others) off before the finale, but if that doesn’t work Leipheimer will have to resort to something you rarely see him do: attack.

3. Franco Pellizotti
After getting dropped on stage five, I thought Pellizotti was doomed to domestique duty for Basso. Yet he has proved one of the surprise packages of the race, putting time into his team mate on Tuesday and a coming in ahead of him again yesterday. Pellizotti now has a minute on Basso in the general classification. Unless Liguigas bows to pressure of having one of the sport’s stars in its ranks, it is now in the enviable position of being able to play the one-two on its rivals. If either Basso or Pellizotti attack, their rivals have to respond, leaving a perfect opportunity for a counter.

4. Danilo Di Luca
He was never going to win yesterday and the time trial was all about limiting his losses, something Di Luca did remarkably effectively, since he sits only 34 seconds behind Menchov. Yet Di Luca still faces huge obstacles to winning in Rome. Not the best on the really big climbs, he is going to struggle to stay in contention on the three mountain top finishes. His best route to victory may be more stage wins like that achieved on Tuesday. Just as in 2007, Di Luca has bene punching well above his weight in this year’s Giro.

5. Carlos Sastre
Sastre isn’t a time trialist, so the focus yesterday was on staying in touch. Although he rode bravely, he is now 2.52 back on Menchov. Mountain top finishes are his forté however, as he proved last year on Alpe d’Huez, but with the time gap he has, it will probably have to repeat the feat twice. That’s a big ask.

6. Ivan Basso
The chance of a glorious comeback is now slipping through Basso’s fingers. Basso is still there or thereabouts, but is not the dominant rider we saw in the 2006 Giro. A three minute gap and a team mate ahead of him means that Basso is really up against it now. Like Sastre, he may try to attack on the uphill finishes. Unlike the Spaniard, the Pellizotti factor may mean his opportunities could be limited.

7. Michael Rogers
The former world time trial champion had a miserable day in the saddle yesterday and lost a big chunk of time to the other favourites. Although a stronger climber, Rogers isn’t the type of guy who can ride everyone else off his wheel. A top five finish is the best he can hope for now.

True to form

I’d never heard of Serotta until a couple of years ago. Relatively unknown on this side of the Atlantic and in the ranks of the professional peloton, the boutique American manufacturer has something of a following in its local market. Probably because of the ridiculously high price tag it slaps on its frames, Serotta has the reputation of being the kind of bike that dentists and lawyers who are new to the sport and have more money than sense, end up buying.

The Sunday Times this weekend had a piece on AIG executive Joseph Cassano, whom it says was largely responsible for some of the massive losses incurred by the insurance group that necessitated a bailout from the US government. Illustrating the piece is a photo of Cassano leaving his London home with his bike. Not surprisingly, he’s got a Serotta.

Giro Diary: Stage Eleven

Yesterday’s stage had something of the calm before the storm about it. A relatively flat run in to Arenzano, it was one for the sprinters and the overall contenders were keeping their powder dry for today’s time trial. Once again, Columbia were in the driving seat at the business end of the stage, attempting to prime another win for Mark Cavendish. Once again, Petacchi rode on Cavendish’s wheel. Yet for the second sprint stage running, Petacchi was muscled off this prime spot, first by Quick Step’s Allan Davis and then by the Americna Tyler Farrar. To me it looks like Petacchi’s rivals have realised that he isn’t the most assertive rider in the bunch. With his LPR team devoted to protecting race leader Danilo Di Luca, he may not get much in the way of help.

Meanwhile today’s stage is probably one of the most hotly anticipated time trials in recent years. 60 kilometres in length, with two significant climbs and lots of twisting road, it’s anybody’s guess what could happen. American Levi Leipheimer is the favourite, but given the nature of the course, the results could spring some surprises.

Giro Diary: Stage Ten

On the slopes of the epic climb to Sestrière, Stefano Garzelli is gunning for glory. It’s the queen stage of this year’s Giro, 260 kilometres through the mountains. The stage was originally meant to mirror the epic stage of 1949, when Fausto Coppi went on a 190 kilometre solo break to put 11 minutes into his rivals. However, issues about different radio frequencies between Italy and France, combined with the risk of landslides meant that the stage route was altered some time back, stripping Colle della Maddalena, Col de Vars and Col d’Izoard. What was set to be a savage affair still has enough to lend it the air of an epic.

Garzelli clearly has a sense of history and while he won’t rack up as many solo miles as Coppi did on that famous day, he will end up spending the guts of 120 kilometres out on his own. Although he has built up more than six minutes on the maglia rosa of Danilo Di Luca, his chances of vaulting himself back into contention for the overall classification are practically non-existant. Instead he is hoovering up the mountains points to cement his lead in the green jersey and maybe just about hang on for a win reminisicent of Claudio Chiappucci’s lone attack to Sestrière in the 1992 Tour de France.

Behind him he has two groups of chasers and ones he crosses the summit, they begin to make ground on him. Garzelli still retains the hope of latching on to his pursuers and perhaps grabbing the win.

Behind them, nothing much is expected from the main bunch. While the stage is incredibly tough, the last climb of the day is the relatively short Pra’ Martino. It’s summit is 11 kilometres from the finish and the consensus is that the run in isn’t difficult enough for any of the overall contenders to make a move.

It comes as something of a surprise then when the fireworks start at the bottom of the Martino. Liquigas once again are the team who light the fuse, with the excellent Sylvester Szmyd setting a ferocious pace that sees riders being shelled out the back of the bunch. Once Szmyd has done his work, Franco Pellizotti flies off the front. His caption Ivan Basso pauses for a moment, trying to let Pellizotti get away. The first time they try it, the bunch chases. Pellizotti’s second attack is successful however and before long he is passing and dropping Garzelli and co.

Basso is playing a clever if risky game. Pellizotti still is high enough up in the overall classification to count as a threat. Basso can wait for his rivals to launch the chase and then perhaps capitalise on it. Sure enough, race leader Danilo Di Luca begins a furious pursuit. Di Luca is protecting his jersey, but also now has the sniff of a stage win, since he stands a good chance of winning from a small bunch of the favourites, possessing as he does, a bigger kick than any of his rivals.

Not surprisingly, Di Luca catches and passes Pellizotti on the descent. Surprisingly though, Leipheirmer, Basso and a few others lose contact. Sastre, Menchov and Pellizotti manage to stay in touch. Bassos’s game has blown up in his face.

Entering the finishing town of Pinerolo, Di Luca kicks on the final drag. Only Sastre seems capable of going with him, but even the diminutive Spaniard is distanced in the end. Di Luca solos home for another stage win, having put every one of his rivals to the sword.

The stage ended up telling us far more about the race for the overall classification than we could ever have expected it to. Di Luca has put a marker firmly down that he is a contender to be reckoned with. He still has the challenge of two time trials and two mountain top finishes, neither of which suit his punchy style. Yet when he won in 2007 he proved a master of limiting his losses on such stages. Whether he can do it again against stiffer opposition remains to be seen.

Sastre, Menchov and Pellizotti have cemented their positions as dangermen and the Spaniard in particular should be written off at your peril. While everyone assumed he was building towards the Tour, he now looks like a man with the form to win.

Leipheimer and Basso looked more like mere mortals and will be kicking themselves about losing time to such a group. Although their losses are minimal, they could still count in the final shakeup. Mick Rogers meanwhile appeared to get dropped on the Martino, which doesn’t bode well for a man facing two mountain top finishes later in the race. All told, the race is still wide open.

Giro Diary: Stage Nine

Yesterday’s stage in Milan was to be something of a departure from the norm for the Giro, a 165 kilometre criterium around the streets of Milan. However, the day turned into something of a damp squib, as a rider protest saw the stage largely neutralised.

Rider power has been a feature of the sport since the 1960’s and races have been disrupted over issues ranging from safety concerns to drug testing. Trouble at this year’s Giro had been brewing for a number of days, with Lance Armstrong publicly complaining about the high speed descents in the rain. Well before yesterday’s stage, Barloworld’s sprinter Robbie Hunter wondered if a 165 kilometre crit was really necessary, arguing that a 100 kilometre affair would be just as entertaining. Pedro Horillo’s horrific crash on Saturday, in which the Rabobank rider came off the road and fell down a ravine, also no doubt focussed some minds on safety.

Yesterday’s protest appears to have been orchestrated by Armstrong, Di Luca and Columbia’s Mick Rogers. The eventual agreement with the organisers was that the peloton would ride most of the course at a relaxed tempo and only contest the finale of the race. Times would not count toward the general classification, meaning that the race was for the stage win only.

TV viewers may have wondered at what the riders were so concerned about, since judging by the pictures, the parcours appeared perfectly safe. However both Rogers and Hunter both explained afterwards that there were parked cars on the course, traffic bollards and, probably most worrying, parallel tram tracks.

When the race finally did get going, it once again came down to a duel between Mark Cavendish and Alessandro Petacchi, with Garmin’s Tyler Farrar trying to crash the party. Cavendish’s Columbia team had the bunch strung out on the closing kilometres and the Manxman was perfectly positioned at the rear of his lead out train. Farrar’s team mates then upped the pace even more, with Bradley Wiggins and David Millar taking some massive pulls at the front. Petacchi meanwhile was playing a now familiar game of sitting on Cavendish’s wheel. However, this time around the Italian lost his position as Allan Davis, Matt Goss and Farrar all began bumping shoulders to squeeze into the Columbia slipstream. The cautious Italian slipped backwards and was unable to accelerate up to Cavendish when the latter made his move. Cavendish’s sprint was perfect in execution and although Davis and Goss tried to go with him, neither got remotely close.

Giro Diary: Stage Eight

Yesterday’s stage to Bergamo seemed unlikely to be one that would affect the overall classifcation. Although fairly lumpy, the terrain wasn’t severe enough to encourage a shake-up and the general consensus was it was likely to favour the stars of the hilly classics, since the stage covered similar territory to the Giro di Lombarida. Race leader Danilo Di Luca was in with a shout of adding a second stage win this year, while Stefano Garzelli was no doubt eyeing this up as an opportunity and Philip Gilbert probably saw it as an opportunity to bring home a much needed win after failing to register one in the spring classics campaign. Most eyes though were fixed on Damiano Cunego. The fact that he has won Lombardia three times was ample enough evidence that this was perfect stage for him.

The Italian has been having a bad Giro and was sitting three and a half minutes back in the overall classification. Having won the race in 2004, he hasn’t looked like repeating the feat, despite a number of good placings. He ended up voicing his frustration on Wednesday, when he made some thinly veiled comments about some of his rivals, claiming that he was riding with a “clear conscience”. “There’s a stage result that has punished me sometimes and then there’s a stage result, let’s say, in life, where everyone has to look at themselves in the mirror. I’m not the only who does the right thing but I do it. We’ve already seen some result rewritten when races have been archived and that hurts,” he said.

It’s not the first time he’s made these suggestions, having had a bit of an exchange earlier this year with Ivan Basso. Cunego began to make a big deal about the fact that he was riding clean last year, even sporting a temporary tattoo at the Tour de France. Previously though he had raised eyebrows due to his past association with Dr. Luigi Cecchini.

Back to yesterday’s stage, everything seemed to be going to plan for Cunego, with his Lampre team coming to the front at the business end of the stage and reeling in the day’s break. On the day’s penultimate climb, the Colle del Gallo, Cunego then sprang free in a small group containing Garzelli. However Mick Rogers and Franco Pellizotti then combined to casually toss a hand grenade into the race by also positioning themselves in the escape.

Rogers is Columbia’s man for the overall classification. A three time world time trial champion, he is capable of riding a good stage race but was a bit of an unknown quantity coming into the Giro. He has missed much of the past two years due to injury, but has begun to look like he is coming back to form this year and has been tipped as a darkhorse for the general classification and started the day third overall, just 36 seconds down from Di Luca.

Pellizotti meanwhile led Liquigas at last year’s Giro and finished a strong fourth. With Ivan Basso now on the team, the two officially are class as co-leaders, but most observers would class Pellizotti as Plan B. Basso’s primacy was underlined on stage five, when he and the other leading contenders rode away from Pellizotti on the the Alpe di Siusi. Nevertheless, he remained only 1:27 off the lead in the overall classification.

While the presence of Pellizotti and Rogers in the break didn’t seem to bother the other favourites, Astana’s Levi Leipheimer decided that he was leaving nothing to chance and attacked out of the peloton to bridge across to the group. This was now a very dangerous escape and a furious pursuit was mounted. Di Luca’s LPR team had to bury themselves at the front to protect his maglia rosa, assisted by Rabobank’s Laurens Ten Dam, who was riding for his team leader Denis Menchov. The break was duly caught, destroying Cunego and Garzelli’s chances of a stage win. With the bunch clearly wiped out from the pursuit, Kanstantsin Siutsou launched an opportunistic attack to solo home for the stage win, the second in the row for the Columbia team.

Giro Diary: Stage Seven

As the peloton approaches the top of the Passo Maloja, the rain begins to come down in earnest. The Giro is no stranger to bad weather. Although the Italian climate is usually very good at this time of the year, up in the mountains it can be a different story and frequently you will see Giro stages go over mountain passes that still have the snow piled up on the side of the road. Indeed, Andy Hampsten famously secured victory in the 1988 Giro after building up a sizeable lead on the Gavia pass during heavy falls of snow.

Today isn’t that bad, but the rain jackets are on. The day’s stage started in Austria, went into Switzerland and once they are over the Maloja, they will be back in Italy. The break has been caught and with thirty odd kilometres to the finish line, everyone is bracing themselves for a treacherous descent.

Diquigiovanni’s Alessandro Bertolini is the first to take his life in his hands, shooting off the front of the bunch almost immediately. The road is waterlogged, but Bertolini is descending like a demon, taking the corners as tight as he can in the rain and then sprinting out of them. He quickly builds up a gap, but has a long way to go. Once the road straightens out a little, pursuers begin to fire themselves off the front. Katusha’s Pavel Brutt and Barloworld’s Robbie Hunter are the first to try. Hunter, a sprinter by trade, can be hopeful of winning the stage from a small group. The tech geeks would probably notice that he’s riding a new, unreleased Bianchi framed, dubbed the ‘Infinito’ apparently.

The pair are then joined by the Norwegian Edvald Boasson Hagen and Fuji – Servetto’s Davide Viganò. Up front, Bertolini is doing everything he can to maintain his gap, squating down on the top tube, lying over the handlebars, trying to get as aerodynamic as he can whilst rocketing down the descent. Yet soon the five riders are all together and with 10 kilometres to go, it looks like they are going to stay away. Hunter and Edvald Boasson Hagen are the danger men. The South African has the sprint, while the Norwegian is showing great form this year, having already won Gent-Wevelgem. With a kilometre to go, Bertolini makes his move. It’s a long way out, but he doesn’t want all his work to be in vain. Boasson Hagen plays a clever game, waiting for Brutt to initiate the chase, which he promptly does. He rides the Russian’s wheel right up to Bertolini and then launches his own attack, which is so devastating that nobody can stay with him. First Gent-Wevelgem, now this, and he won’t be 22 until Sunday. This young man is going places.

First race of the year

Back in one of the chasing groups on the second lap of the circuit (Photo credit: Emmanuel Schockaert)

Morning of the 22nd of February and I’m standing on my balcony with a coffee in my hand. Unbelievably, it’s looking like a great day, bright and clear and nothing like the cold wintry weather of the preceding weeks. Filled with optimism I just don a base layer and knee warmers under my club kit and head off for the first race of the year.

With the weather like this it’s easy to forget the nerves. My training after all hadn’t been ideal over the past few weeks and I’d fallen off the wagon again with regard to smoking. How bad could it be though?

Out on the road on the way to the start in Dunboyne, the rain starts and I’m beginning to regret not bringing more gear. On the dual carriageway I run into a bunch of my club mates who have stopped to fix a puncture. Everyone’s decked out in jackets and tights. As long as I keep moving, I tell myself, I needn’t worry about the cold.

At the sign on I meet my club’s president who asks me if I’ve been bumped out of the limit group yet. Not yet, I say. Most of the races in our clubs league are run on a handicapped basis and the limit group gets the biggest handicap. I’m a strong enough rider and probably could survive in the next group up. But I only joined the club midway through last year and then only showed up for a handful of races for which I was ill-prepared. In other words, I’m still very new to this. I’ll settle for the limit group for the moment.

Once signed on I take off up the road to warm up. The weather is pretty nasty and it looks like it’s down for day. Riders are whizzing up and down the road trying to get the lungs working and the blood flowing. I’m just trying not to freeze to death.

Once back in Dunboyne it isn’t long before my group is called. I’ve got company in the limit group in the form of three guys I know who’ve joined the club this year: Aidan, Barry and Ivan. However, at the start line only Aidan is in evidence. Our group is sent off and I’m wondering if the other two lads have missed the start. I get my answer when they both suddenly ride up to the front alongside me. They’d just missed the start and had to quickly chase up to us.

The group meanwhile isn’t moving terribly quickly and isn’t very organised. Aside from the three guys and myself, only a couple are coming up to take a pull. I was damned if I was pulling these guys around all day and so, even though I’m a novice myself, I start shouting and trying to get a regular up and over paceline going. If nobody works together, the group has no hope of staying away. Soon things begin to improve. Some of the passengers have slipped off the back, others are still refusing to budge, but at least half the group is doing some work now. The first little drag of the course and the chat from behind starts. “Take it easy” someone is shouting. The pace drops off a little and the group remains intact.

The road is quite waterlogged and, to make matters worse, there are clods of earth all over it, as if they’ve fallen off the back of a lorry. I’m not too worried though since the nobody is doing anything dumb. That’s until I do something dumb myself. Approaching what is probably the tightest bend on the course I’m a the front and call it. I then proceed to take a much tighter line than anyone else. The back wheel goes out from beneath me and I’m on the ground. Why I did that is anybody’s guess. I’m usually a very cautious rider, haven’t crashed in years and I’m not in the habit of screaming around corners. Maybe I hit one of those patches of muck and the wheel lost traction? I’ll never know.

Dazed on the ground, the marshals rush over to me to see if I’m OK. I think so. My elbow is cut, my hand is cut and my hip is sore. Is my elbow broken? No it isn’t. In an instant I decide that I’m going to rejoin the race. Back on my bike and I realise my shoe is open, which I have to stop to fix. I’ve lost a lot of time and the group is way out of sight.

Looking over my shoulder there is no sign of any of the other groups so I decide to push ahead on my own. My bike has been damaged in the crash, the shifting has gone awry, most likely down to a bent derailleur hanger. One shift, two shifts, nothing. Then it jumps three cogs. Just what I need.

Turning out on to the main road for Trim at Batterstown I can see the bunch in the distance. I close up on a group of three who have fallen off the back and decide not to latch on but go straight past. Nobody takes my wheel. I’ve got the group in my sights but I’m killing myself to get there. They can share the work, but I’m out on my own in the wind.

Turning left at Dorey’s Forge we approach the stiffest drag of the course. Grinding up it in the big ring, I don’t appear to be getting any closer but I know if I stay close I’ll catch them shortly afterwards. Once over the top, two breakaway riders from one of the faster groups tear by and I latch on their wheels to get pulled up to the bunch. Riding up to Ivan’s shoulder he glances at me and asks if we should give chase to two who have just passed us. I shrug but we get our answer very soon as their pursuers come flying by us. Ivan and then Barry manage to jump on. I’m cooked after the effort of getting back on. My race is run.

After the inevitable sorting out that occurs when the groups start to come together I find myself in a bunch of seven or eight riders. We’ve no hope of getting back on, but we work well together to finish out the race at a decent pace.

Within minutes of stopping, I realise how sore I am. I’ve lost a lot of skin from my thigh and it’s beginning to swell up. Thankfully Barry takes pity on me and gives me a lift home. I’m left hobbling around for the next week and off the bike for a little longer. Not a great start to the season.

POSTSCRIPT: I had intended blogging all of my races this year but with a good few under my belt, I’ve a bit of catching up to do. As someone new to racing, it’s mainly going to be a diary of pain and humiliation.