CHRIS NEWTON, one of Britain’s most decorated cyclists, has a treasure chest of Olympic and world championship medals but would still love to add his name to the list of FBD Insurance Rás legends who have won the title three times or more.

MARK CASSIDY was little more than an interested spectator when he stood alongside his mother in Drogheda to watch his father, Philip, don the coveted race leader’s yellow jersey at the end of the penultimate stage of the 1999 FBD Insurance Rás.

TWO of Ireland’s leading hopes for the FBD Insurance Rás, Brian Kenneally and Paul Griffin, have been out of sorts recently but expect to go to the line in Kilcullen for Sunday’s opening stage to Wexford town with all guns blazing.

PAUL HEALION (South Dublin) won the senior men’s national time trial title in the absence of the professional riders at Newcastlewest last night.

STEPHEN GALLAGHER (An Post/Sean Kelly/Martin Donnelly/ Grant Thornton) won the overall title and the national road race champion, David O’Loughlin (Pezula Racing), won the high-profile final stage of the FBD Insurance Rás in Skerries yesterday as Irish riders reclaimed control of Irish cycling’s showpiece.

STEPHEN GALLAGHER (An Post/Sean Kelly/Martin Donnelly) set out from Ballinamore yesterday morning hoping for a stage win, but by last night he had introduced an exciting new dimension to this year’s FBD Insurance Rás by claiming the race leader’s yellow jersey in a three-man sprint into Claremorris.

LAST October Ken Hanson came over from California to visit his aunt and cousins in Leitrim and yesterday his relations were celebrating his return to the county of his ancestry as he claimed the first yellow jersey of this year’s FBD Insurance Rás in Ballinamore.

THIS is Olympic year so we can expect big things from Ciarán Power — the most experienced Irish professional in the peloton — according to Martin O’Loughlin, who is former manager of the Olympic cycling team.

BOBBY POWER, one of the legends of Irish cycling, will be back on the bike on Sunday for the Lacey Cup in Tralee — a race he won back in 1975.