Stage 3 - Tralee - Ennis - 24 August

Sorry for the delay in continuing this tale but I was without internet for three nights in Ireland and I refused to waste my last night there in front of a laptop. Then I got home to family and work for two days and then off to motor officiate the Green Mountain Stage Race near Burlington, VT. Now that I'm home for a few days I'll try to get the rest of the story done.

Friday was a quiet stage from Tralee to Ennis. The course took us north along the west coast of Ireland to the River Shannon (gorgeous) and through Limerick and on to Ennis. After the climbing of Stage 2, and with the Queen's Stage coming on Saturday the riders appreciated this modest but lovely ride through Counties Kerry, Limerick and Clare.

Here we have the President Commissaire, Germano Casarotti, and the voice of Radio Tour, Marc Bollen, two consummate professionals. Signor Casarotti is the finest European UCI official I have come across keeping a firm but gentle hand on the race. Marc moved fluently across English, French, Italian and Spanish keeping all who were fortunate enough to have a radio on his frequency completely informed about the status of the race.


Darach McQuaid was enjoying his chat with the Irish National Champion, David O'Laughlin.


As we left Tralee the bunch rode neutral past this windmill which was decorated on the seaward side with race jerseys. My good friend, Chief Marshal, Martin O'Reilly, told the Garda officer at the bridge some profane tale about why I should be detained. But it didn't work, the officer just smiled and waved me back into the race after Stephen had taken his shots.


There was a good crowd as the field raced through Ballybunion. You can just see a part of the only known statue of Bill Clinton to the left of the blue building.


And another crowd at Tarbert for the sprint.


Here are the leaders heading toward the sprint in Foynes.


After 90 kilometers it was time for lunch in the feed zone near the Barrigone Quarry outside of Foynes.


Limerick was completely shut down for about ten minutes as the leaders went through and then the bunch. We were delayed getting out as I was interviewed by a pretty reporter from the Limerick Leader newspaper. Read all about it.



We came across this lovely church in Killaloe and the digital camera fired a bit late for a perfect shot. In trying to identify the location, I found a lot of shots of the front of the church but none from this side. So enjoy. This is special.


On Cahir Mountain at the KOM we found this poignant memorial.


All along the route we found cycling fans awaiting the race like this group in Tully.

This was a classic professional stage race finish. The six leaders were caught by the peleton about three kilometers from the finish and none who had worked so hard for so long finished in a podium position. There was a good crowd to appreciate the 45 kph finish speed but I have no picture. Another person put his camera and elbow right in front of me and that's all I had to show for it.

After everything settled down Kevin, his photographer (also Stephen) and I headed out of town to Galway where we were to spend two nights. Kevin was asking for directions when I rode up to tell him I had the route in my GPS. He seemed surprised that the Yank would have this info available but he fell in behind me and off we went. At the first roundabout the GPS pointed straight but I misread the traffic sign and took us off course to the left. I forgot the first rule of sailing and flying, always trust your instruments.

Now that all confidence in my navigation tools had been lost, Kevin led us out of Ennis. As we headed north on the Galway Road, I experienced more Irish lane splitting. What a joy to see the cars just move to the outside and leave a more than adequate space in the center for the motorbikes.

Somewhere near Gort we stopped for fuel. While we were topping up, the Garda motors came by pushing all the backed-up traffic off to the side. Many of the team cars and staff vehicles were following. I'm not sure the locals appreciated this preferential treatment but our fellow tourers surely did.

Before leaving the gas station Kevin asked if my GPS had sorted itself out. I assured him it had. It led us directly to the hotel without a misstep. My Garmin had redeemed itself as we pulled into the hotel parking lot.

Stage 3 and the transfer to Galway were over. As much as I was enjoying Stephen's company and good humor I did enjoy wringing out the BMW on the transfer alone. I was becoming very impressed with my mount.