Stage 2 - Clonakilty - Kilarney - 23 August

Thursday started with a question, "would you like to join us on the scenic route?" Of course I would.

We left Cork on the direct route to Clonakilty but soon took a turn toward the south coast of Ireland. The roads are very different from back home, rarely maintaining the same surface, width or camber in the curves for more that a few miles. On the short detour of about 20 miles mile we encountered at least six or seven different road surfaces on the same route.

Here I am with the headlands in the background. Dennis, of whom I'll speak more shortly, gave us a history lesson which included the fact that the Lusitania sank just off that headland.


And this is Stephen McCarthy, my young photographer, who was unsteady in yesterday's race. If you put 240 lbs. on the back of a small motorcycle it really can be the tail wagging the dog. Amazingly after he got back on after this stop he and I gelled and started riding as a team. We still could not go as fast as the rest who were on bigger bikes with smaller riders but we deported ourselves well.

Here we have Dennis (mentioned above). Dennis was the second person on the crew that I met back in the parking lot in Kilkenny. When we met, after short introductory comments, he asked "what part of the states are you from?"
I replied "Pennsylvania."

And he said, "Ah, yeh, I lived in Williamsport before I joined the Marines."

What are the odds that you'll travel to a foreign country and the second person you'll meet is from the small city where you live? It turns out that Dennis used to drink at the Shamrock, a small bar a five minute walk from my home.


The Irish Garda nicely placed in front of the Church in Clonakilty.


The start line in Clonakilty.


This is Kevin who, with Steve, John, Pat and Dennis, have worked hard to make sure I don't make too many mistakes.


And here are the aforementioned Steve and Dennis.


And the Lord Mayor of Clonakilty with Alan Rushton, the Event Director.


The fellow with the hat is Brian, our TV producer and one very cool guy. He rode into the hotel in Cork on the back of a motorcycle.


The grand church in Clonakilty.


A typical Irish backroad, single-track with a 50 mph speed limit for those metrically challenged and you'd have to be more than metrically challenged to ride that road at 50.


Here comes the bunch into Skibbereen.


Looking back down from the road from the first King of the Mountain hot spot on today's stage at Glenlough.


Here's the bunch chasing the leaders near the Sprint hot spot in Glengariff.


The hard but sunny face of Ireland at the second KOM at Derreenacarrin.

This is the descent from Healy Pass.


But before you go down you must climb up.


No fun for this bunch but some one has to do it.


And here comes the winner of this KOM, Kristan House of Navigators.


Looking across the bay at Kenmare.


And the last KOM of the day at Moll's Pass.


And here they come through the finish in Kilarney.


That's my friend, co-race organizer and the guy who made it possible for me to be here, David Kalman of Shadetree Sports.


And to think, if I didn't have the motor press job I might have been chaperoning these two ladies. It's better this way.


Our hotel tonight is the Malton, about 50 meters from the Finish Line. We had a great dinner in their fine restaurant. While dining I noted that the race officials were dining at the same time. This is almost unheard of in my experience. Usually we're still trying to generate credible results while dinner is going on. More than once I've missed dinner while working on results.

At breakfast I met Seamus Shortall and his assistant Ger Madden. These are the men responsible for getting these results out. Most nights they had the results in the hands of the teams before we left the finish area ... phenomenal performance! When we met Seamus said "Oh, you're Tom Balaban. I found your blog." He was kind enough not to tell me what he thought of it.

Stage 1 - Kilkenny to Cork - 22 August

Race day is here. Almost a year of detailed planning and we're about to see if we got it right. Of course we did. At least as far as the fans will ever know it was perfect.

Here are the motor marshals sitting around waiting for the gun which will not go off for an hour.


This is the Start Line which was completed at 9am this morning. I don't mean the construction. I mean the graphic attachments. The vendor forgot to do the left side and no one knew until it was being assembled for the first time..


Here are the lead vehicles including officials, race security, Mavic neutral support and the invaluable Garda motors.


This shot is in the category of "carrying coals to Newcastle". It is a picture of the great cycling photographer, Graham Watson (center) and his pilot, Luke Evans. Graham is guy who brought sunflowers to France so he'd have great backgrounds for his pictures or so it was claimed in an April 1, 2002 article in Velonews. Luke is supposedly my roommate but I have yet to be introduced to him nor has he shown up in our room. That's me mate, Mick on the left.


Here are Pat and Theresa Dowd ready for their Time Board (over here they call it blackboard) duties.


And they're off in Kilkenny.


Here we are just after the intermediate sprint in Carrick-on-Suir, the home of Irish Cycling legend, Sean Kelly.


A bit further down the road, the riders race through the Clonmel city gate after the second intermediate sprint of the day.


Now this is some scenery as we wait for the racers at The Vee, the only mountain points in today's stage.


Here's a closer look of the folks we get to look down on for a short while.


And here comes the bunch. The leaders went by four minutes ago.


The race is over and as usual I missed it. In this case it's because I had to guard my bike and its equipment. Apparently petty theft is a big thing in Ireland's cities. But the good news is I was there when Sean Kelly came by to tend to his Murphy & Gunn team.


And of course, no day would be complete without a reference to that holiest of Irish holies, Guinness.



As I write tonight's post I am at the Cork International Airport Hotel which is one of the nicest, funkiest places I've ever stayed. Funky how? you might ask. Let's start and end with the house flys painted on the urinals.

Tomorrow we're out at 0930 to take the coast road to Clonakily for the start. I'm told that tomorrow will be the most scenic day of the Tour. I promise to take lots of pix.

Pre Race Prep

Today the camera is out and working. Here are a few pix of the Newpark Hotel where I stayed for two nights. It's a pretty nice place except for the basement room with no elevator. What a PITA to get the luggage up and down the stairs.





Since I had nothing to do until noon, I went shopping for my "Forgive-Me-For-Going-To-Ireland-Without-You" gift for Ann. I did well if I do say so myself but I can't say what here and spoil the surprise. These are pictures of the Kilkenny Castle where the race will start tomorrow and the High Street shopping area. It doesn't look busy but it is with an enormous variety of shops and NO chain stores.






Then to the Lyrath Estate Hotel for registration, credentials, sticker application, meetings and cash purse disbursement for gasoline. This place is a stunning combination of old and new. As nice as the Newpark was I wish I'd been billeted here.




Out in the parking lot there was everything you can imagine going on. Race stickers were being applied to every vehicle. Brand new BMWs were being identified as official Tour of Ireland vehicles. Radios were being installed in each car. Arguments were taking place over who needed what bike to do their job. Nobody wanted mine and I was happy with it.


Here's my bike with its sticker applied. Can see the mistake I made?




This is a two-part sticker with the green background and the race logo and Press Pilot 2 on a separate adhesive sheet. I did not put the bottom of the white "wheels" even with the bottom of the green thus failing to create the proper bleed effect. Me bad. Every detail is important in branding.

This is the Irish Garda motorcycle patrol. U.S. motor police could learn a lot about conspicuity and proper safety gear from them. These men and women are all about safety and are totally professional on the job. Cool Yamaha FJR 1300s too.




Now it was time to meet my new mates and a fine crew they are. I'm working with Kevin, Steve, Pat, John, Mick and a couple who are the Time Board Crew, Theresa and Pat. These guys and gals are just like the folks I work with in states-side races. Lots of craziness before the race and after but total professionalism during.

I will be carrying a young novice photographer for a Dublin-based sports image agency. Steve has never worked a bike race, has never ridden a motorcycle and is about 25 lbs heavier than I am. We'll see how this is going to work out. Actually I like working with newbies. They're malleable. I just wish he was 50 lbs lighter. I'm not sure this bike is up to it.

We'll see tomorrow.

A Rainy Ride to Kilkenny

Monday came in normal Irish fashion with lots of rain. I'd slept through breakfast and was awakened with a call from Hunter that they were on the way to collect my luggage and take it to Kilkenny in 30 minutes. Time to get moving ... FAST.

I met them on time in front of the hotel. We loaded my bags and headed to the light rail stop that would take me near the motorcycle pick-up point.

They dropped me at St. Stephen's Green, Dublin's Central Park and I caught a trolley to Sandyford. The LUAS ticketing system is a joy. You buy a ticket and get on the train. When you get to your destination you get off. No one looks at your ticket at any time. It's a an honor system. HOWEVER, if you do get stopped and do not have the proper ticket in your possession the fines are substantial.

At Sandyford I began the two mile walk to the pick-up point. Once more in rain. The hardest part was keeping the inside of my helmet dry.

I found the place using my GPS and was the first one there. Oh goody, I get first dibs on the bikes. NOT! Someone had stopped by some time before and claimed four of the bigger bikes. All that was left were a couple of F650s and a couple of F800s (all the bikes are BMWs). I grabbed a cool silver F800ST which was big enough to haul two. Since my job was to pilot a motorcycle for a photographer that was essential.

The bad news was twofold. I'd forgotten to pack the RAM mount bases for my GPS mount and my radio mount. And the F800ST has a plastic tank area. My tank bag is a magnetic one. It doesn't play well with plastic.

So off I headed to the biggest BMW motorcycle dealer in Ireland about 20 miles away with my magnetic tank bag secured behind me with a cargo net. Surely they would have a tank bag for this bike and maybe RAM mount bases as well. Since I could not mount my GPS I was back to navigating by normal means; looking for road signs. I knew Joe Duffy's was on the M50 and that route was very near. After four two-mile circuits of the Sandyford Industrial Park all I could find were signs that pointed to M50 but didn't take me there.

Finally a fellow motorcyclist pulled up and asked if I knew where (I couldn't understand a thing he was asking) was? I told him I was lost myself, an American trying to find the M50. He knew enough to point me in the right direction. I wished him well and headed on the rainy slog north.

The fine folks at Joe Duffey BMW Motorrad had everything you can imagine except a tank bag that would fit and RAM mount bases. Time to head to Kilkenny. Did I mention how much I hate toll booths when on a motorcycle? Well, I hate them even more when on a motorcycle in the rain. The only people who hate them more are the people waiting while I take of my gloves, dig into my pockets for the correct change which falls on the ground and then you get off the bike to pick it up and finally pay the toll and drive up the road and stop before putting your glove back on. I wish my EZ-Pass worked in Ireland.

It took about a half-hour to get out of Dublin on the M7 and the further out I got the dryer it became. By the time I was 50 km out it was dry. I'd stop after each new route to check if I was still on course according to my GPS. It worked out fine.

One of the more remarkable parts of driving in Ireland, other than driving on the left, is their passing technique. Ann will never have grounds to criticize my two-lane passing again. First let me point out there is a small lane on the side of the main lane. I did not understand why it was there. It was barely wide enough for a bicycle. Then a fellow passed me just as a big truck came around a bend. I hit my brakes and headed into that small lane and the big truck did the same on the other side, except he didn't hit his brakes. The fellow in the car drove right over the center line went between the two of us like nothing happened. As far as he was concerned, and everyone else but me, nothing had.

I got to the Lyrath Estate Hotel safely only to find that I was not staying there. The race is occupying four hotels in Kilkenny. Darach had some letters for me to post before 5 PM so I headed off to find my hotel and a post office neither of which was in my GPS.

I found the post office on High St. which looked like a fine place to look for a gift for Anne tomorrow and after a few false starts found the hotel.

I was the only crew there that night so I ate alone and got organized for the next day. Early to bed with no drinking. Work was about to start.

My camera was in one of my pieces of luggage so no pix today.

Dublin

Did you ever have a trip where everything went exactly right? I know what you're thinking ... what happened now?

Nothing! Absolutely nothing. The plane was cramped but it was only five and a half hours after an hour and a half taxi from the gate.

I landed in Dublin at 0530, cleared immigration in less than five minutes, got my bags in less than 15 minutes and walked across the road (look right, you're in Ireland now) to the AirCoach with 30 minute service to my hotel. I was in my hotel by 0630. Unbelievable.

Even more unbelievable, my hotel room was ready. David Kalman, my host and race organizer, called and said he would not be available until noon and that he and his partner, Darach McQuaid, youngest of the famous McQuaid cycling family, were going to come by, grab a bag I had carried over for them and head on to Kilkenny. I was to stay in Dublin and pick up my motorcycle in the morning. I took a four hour nap. Perfect.

I met Darach and David at noon and David suggested I call his son, Hunter, who was there until Monday as well. Hunter, his wife Nikki and their friend, Ash, were just entering one of Ireland's holiest sites, the Guinness Brewery for a tour. It was about five miles away and I told them I'd meet them after their tour and started walking.

Dublin is a walking city. The streets are busy, narrow, tree-lined and I've not seen a building other than church steeples more than four stories high. One of the first buildings I came across was the U.S. Embassy. What an architectural monstrosity! If there were not so many Irishmen in the U.S., I'm sure the Irish would have severed diplomatic relations just because we built that eyesore.

The rest of the walk was most interesting with a variety of homes of levels of style and grandeur.

I met my new friends at the Guinness Brewery .

Not my Friends

They'd already enjoyed one Irish landmark and now wanted to revisit a second. These were my kind of people! Off we went to John Jameson's distillery for an Irish Coffee. What a treat! My favorite liquor in one of the best Irish Coffees I've ever had. I even got into a fight with the serving wench (her term not mine) about the origin of Irish Coffee. I know I was right that it was invented at the Buena Vista Cafe in San Francisco but surrendered to her so I could get my hands on the one she had so expertly made in Dublin.

Hunter is the One in Sunglasses

The Surly Serving Wench in the Background

Then off we went to get a bite before joining a literary pub craw through central Dublin. On the way we four Americans found a Sushi Restaurant in Dubin where our waiter was of Japanese heritage from Boise, ID. If you're ever yearning for sushi in Dublin try Yokohama just on the north side of the Ha'penny Bridge.

Fanciful Decoration on a Central Dublin Building

We made it to the Duke Street Pub in time to down another pint before the serious drinking began. Our two hosts for the Crawl, Brendan and John did a superior job of educating and entertaining us as we visited three more pubs with more than adequate imbibing time and in between Trinity College and the now retired St. Andrew's church, all the while telling us about and performing works by Oscar Wilde, Samuel Beckett, James Joyce to name few of the thirty or so they spoke of.

Trinity College

We finished off the evening with a late dinner at the Gotham Cafe with dishes like Wall Street Pizza and a Spicy Shrimp salad with the most amazing HOT (warm) crisp lettuce I ever tasted.

It was a great day and, with my new friends, Dublin is a city I will never forget. First impressions are lasting and this was a fantastic first impression.