Over the following weeks there was quite a bit of correspondence and we eventually agreed on five riders and four team officials. None of this was unusual. They forwarded the names of all those concerned and each of the riders had a UCI code, an official registration of sorts.

There were passport numbers and all the rest of it and it seemed to indicate everything was above board. These guys knew the procedures and they filled out all the relevant forms and so on.

They asked for my assistance about speeding up visas and I made some calls and they were granted these. So the department were sure everything was okay as well.

The whole nine were to fly into Dublin Airport but I got a phone call from Airport Police saying that four Iranians had arrived. They said there were no bikes or any other equipment but that would not be unusual either because they could have been following with the rest of the party. So I made arrangements for accommodation for these four and told them to get a taxi to the hotel but they never arrived. So I rang up the vice-president back in Tehran and he told me they were actually staying in the Iranian Embassy.

Two guys arrived a couple of days later and again they had no bikes or anything else.

One claimed to be an official and the other the remaining cyclist but immigration started having all these suspicions by now and it's easy to see why. They told me they didn't believe the story because the guy claiming to be a cyclist wasn't exactly in shape and also his legs were too hairy. So during the discussion in the airport one absconded. By now I was wondering what the hell was going on so I contacted the guy in Iran who never replied and then I contacted the Iranian Embassy and they hadn't a clue about any of this and weren't aware of any team coming over. It became clear then the whole thing was a scam. I checked since with the gardai and they said the five had been apprehended and were being processed for deportation.

Other than that the race was a great success . We had a great finish and the first 10 were still in contention to win it come the closing stage.

That helped and there was a great turnout in Skerries to see that finish. It was won by a German but our own Paudi O'Brien came in second and Stephen Gallagher was there as well which helped out when it came to spectators.

Of course the race is never going to be as popular as it once was. Years ago I remember coming into the Phoenix Park and there used to be what seemed like hundreds of thousands there at the finish but we are in competition against so many different sports now that was never going to be possible to maintain.And there were the likes of Roche and Kelly around that drew people towards cycling back then. It's no longer like that at the top and the professional sport seems to be taking blow after blow as regards drugs. That doesn't affect us directly but can't be good for any aspect of the sport and it is very sad to see.

But we're still holding our own. Every town had a good turnout of local people and in terms of publicity we haven't gone away. It's been there 55 years now and while it has changed from being a domestic race to being an international race that is almost natural in this day and age.

But it leaves it as a unique event. We could have a lot more international teams if funds allowed but at the same time we don't want to tip the balance too much. We still want to keep it our own to a certain extent. So there's that mix. We had a lot of county or regional teams from all over Ireland and then there were teams from Australia, Germany, Holland, the States, all over the place. We even had a team from Iran, nearly.

Dermot Dignam is organiser of the FBD

Ras In conversation with Ewan MacKenna