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Mark Lovatt Leads Experienced Doncaster Stena Line Team
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| Mark Lovatt |
Current FBD INSURANCE RÁS King of the Mountains Champion, Briton Mark Lovatt, will lead a powerful Doncaster Stena Line team in next month’s FBD Insurance RÁS, which starts from Dublin on the 21st and finishes in Skerries on Sunday 28th May. Lovatt is joined by three other seasoned campaigners, Wayne Randle, John Tanner and Gavin Evans, while up and coming young rider, Ashley Brown, has the potential to outshine his more illustrious compatriots More>>>
Polish Professional team for FBD Insurance Rás
The strength of the foreign opposition in this year’s FBD Insurance RÁS, which starts from Dublin on the 21st of next month, continues to mount with the news that the powerful Polish professional team, Legia-Bazylisek, has confirmed its participation for the big Irish 8 Day International Cycle Race. Team Legia now joins the USA, Canada, Norway and Britain as certain starters when the race takes to the roads of Ireland in a little over four weeks time. More>>>
Top Norweigian And Canadian Teams Announced for FBD Insurance Rás
With the start of the FBD Insurance RÁS now just over one
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| Tamas Lengyel Sparebanken Vest Norway |
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| Andrew Randell Symmertrics Cycling Canada |
month away, two more strong, foreign, professional teams have been confirmed for the world-ranked event.
Race organiser Dermot Dignam announced this week that the Norway-Sparebanken Vest and the Canada-Team Symmetrics squads would be making the trip to Ireland for the May 21st start in Dublin. Their addition brings the number of Continental, professional, level teams to four, following the previous confirmation of USA-TIAA CREF and GB-Recycling.co.uk. More>>>
Former World Champion Leads Top US Team In FBD Insurance Rás
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| Danny Pate former world under 23 Time Trial Champion |
One week after it was confirmed that defending champion Chris Newton and his professional team, Recycling.co.uk, will return to the FBD Insurance Rás comes the news that former world under 23 Time Trial Champion, Danny Pate, will lead the powerful American professional squad, TIAA-CREF, in the big Irish international race when it gets underway from Dublin on Sunday 21st of next month. More>>>
Newton To Defend His FBD Rás Title
Last year’s FBD Insurance Rás winner Chris Newton will once again be one of the big danger men when the big 8 day international cycle race gets underway from Dublin on Sunday 21st May. Confirmation that Newton will lead the powerful British professional squad, Recycling.co.uk, in defence of his title was announced today by his team manager, John Herety.
The talented 32-year-old Briton has twice topped the podium, winning overall in 2003 and again last year. He appears to be in solid form again this season, taking gold earlier this month in the Commonwealth Games team pursuit. He will be aiming to use that track speed to winning effect on the roads of Ireland.
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Irish Sports Council Supports FBD Insurance Rás
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| Austin Mallon Irish Sports Council Stuart Gillespie Team TIAA-CREF USA Winner of the white jersey 2005 and Grace McKenna |
When the final stage of the FBD Insurance RÁS finishes in the Skerries on Sunday 28th May the rider most likely to win a professional contract in the coming months will be the rider to don the Irish Sports Council's white jersey as the most promising young rider of the race. More>>>
Cuchulainn Crystal Sponsors County Rider Award
Dundalk company Cuchulainn Crystal has signed up as one of the official sponsors of the FBD Insurance RÁS which takes place this year from Sunday 21st to Sunday 28th May. The race is one of the select group of world races eligible to award qualifying points for World Championships and Olympic Games.
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| Bill Moore Receives some Cuchulainn Crystal after winning the final stage of the 2005 FBD Insurance Rás |
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The Gene Mangan Story
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| Gene Mangan |
Competitive cycling may be but one of the minor sports in the calendar of Irish sporting activities, but in its minuteness the N.C.A. has a national strength which far exceeds that of other athletic organizations many times more large.
The young men of the N.C.A. are more than sportsmen engaged in their favourite athletic activity. Their concept of sport has a much wider meaning than that of simple athletic competition. They clearly realise the significance of the fact that their country is being denied the right to nationhood in international competition and in realising this they are one in an earnest endeavour to break through that screen of misrepresentation which hides the true position of Iri**sh athletics from the eyes of the vast majority of fair-minded sportsmen the world over.
This is the story, or at least the beginning of the story, of possibly the greatest and undoubtedly the most versatile of all Irish cyclists. It is the story of a young man who, despite international suspension, is tackling, the cream of world competition and who, I firmly believe, will by his action and by his triumphs, do much to bring before the eyes of the world the injustice which is being perpetrated against Irish athletics. This is a story of sportsmanship, triumphs and true athletic nationalism .... it is the story of the fabulous Gene Mangan of Killorglin. More>>>
Some Tips On How To Become A Road Champion By Gene Mangan
The most essential requirement in the Cycling game is enthusiasm. A cyclist must love the game, and he must give it all he's got or he will never make the grade. No half measures will do, for cycling is an almost full spare-time job.
To be good yon must be fit and to be fit for competitive cycling you must have at least two to three months of diligent and continuous training.
Yes, cycling sure is a demanding sport, but I can assure you it's worth it. More>>>
Shay O'Hanlon Four Times Rás Winner
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| Jim Killean,President Of The N.C.A. Shay O'Hanlon Rás Winner 1962 And Mick Christle Race Organiser |
O’Hanlon rode alone’ is one of the more perceptive observations of Shay O’Hanlon, as offered by one of his contemporaries.
Rás veterans generally like to reminisce about the great Rás riders of their era and, like any sport, the exploits of past masters and the revisiting in the mind’s eye of epic sporting scenes leads to a flow of descriptive and colourful discussion. Enquiry about Shay O’Hanlon, however, provokes a perceptible difference in reaction – a response that hints at an elusive dimension difficult to articulate. His peers, in attempting to describe his qualities as a rider, sometimes struggle to find superlatives; emotion is visibly stirred, while the body language suggests a slight discomfort at an inability to adequately express their sense of him – ‘What can you say about O’Hanlon?’ Personal reminiscences are quickly reverted to – scenes that are burned in the memories of those who rode with him and which might illustrate those subtle qualities: ‘I’ll never forget the day…’
Four outright wins, 24 stage wins and 37 Yellow Jerseys powerfully demonstrate his stature as the most successful Rás rider ever. Such bare statistics, however, merely provide evidence of a phenomenal physical capacity and do little to reveal an equally remarkable intellect. Like the efforts of his peers to signify the essence of O’Hanlon through examples of his feats, the revisiting of a few of the seminal scenes from his Rás career may provide some fleeting illustrations of his combination of acumen and athletic ability which, arguably, produced the most dominant rider ever in Irish domestic cycling. More>>>
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