PAUL GRIFFIN has a very good record in the Kerry Group Rás Mumhan but goes to the line for Friday’s start as an unknown quantity.

TINO HAAKMAN, runner-up in 2008 and 11th overall last year, will return to Kerry to lead the West Frisia Combilift team from Holland in the Kerry Group Rás Mumhan 4-Day International Cycle Race over the Easter weekend.

THE route for the Kerry Group Rás Mumhan is expected to be finalised next week but the big news is the Easter Saturday stage will retain its traditional toughness.

ALL the drama and excitement associated with the Bulmers Irish Cups and Shields came very much to the fore at Kenmare Golf Club when Nenagh and Douglas qualified for the national finals of the Jimmy Bruen and Pierce Purcell Shields.

DAVID O’LOUGHLIN (An Post/Sean Kelly) attempts to win the Elite road race championship for a fourth time at Dunboyne on Sunday.

PAUL HEALION (Ireland National Team) put down an important marker along the road to London 2012 by beating some of the world’s top sprinters for the stage victory when the FBD Insurance Rás arrived in Castlebar yesterday.

Stage four of the FBD Insurance Rás takes the peloton on a 178km tour of Kerry today.

JAAN KIRSIPUU powered his way up the finishing straight to thrill the fans who thronged Cahirciveen at the end of the longest stage in this year’s FBD Insurance Rás yesterday.

CHRIS NEWTON has the opportunity to join the legends of cycling over the coming week by winning the FBD Insurance Rás for a third time and John Herety, manager of the British Rapha Condor team, admitted on the eve of Irish cycling’s showpiece that the former world champion and three-time Olympic medallist has that as his ambition.

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.

DERMOT DIGNAM, Race Organiser of the FBD Insurance Rás which gets under way in Kilcullen on Sunday, feels there could be an Irish winner this year despite the impressive field.

BRIAN KENNEALLY has recovered from his third win in the Kerry Group Rás Mumhan, but has not yet decided if he will contest the Shay Elliott Memorial in Bray next Sunday when he could opt for the big race down south, the Bill Hyland Memorial in Clonmel.

DUTCH rider, Dion Beukeboom (Midi Center Ruiter Wielerteam), claimed stage victory in an exciting three-man sprint up the hill in Killorglin but all attention was focused on Paul Griffin (Team Earl of Desmond) and Brian Kenneally (Engraveit.ie/Cycleways/BDBC), who filled the minor placings as the Kerry Group Rás Mumhan got underway yesterday.

BRIAN KENNEALLY goes to the line for today’s opening stage of the Kerry Group Rás Mumhan in Killorglin with his sights firmly set on a third victory in the race.

PAUL GRIFFIN wants to fulfil one of his lifetime ambitions by winning the Kerry Group Rás Mumhan at the weekend but he is fully aware of the tough task ahead of him.

JUST a week after winning the coveted Route du Sud in the Pyrenees, Daniel Martin returned to Ireland to claim the shamrock jersey of the national champion with another power-packed display on the Ballinacurra circuit, near Midleton, yesterday.

THE organiser of the FBD Insurance Rás has had to turn down a request from the Italian Cycling Federation to have their Olympic track team included in the line-up for this year’s showpiece which gets under way on Sunday week.

THE Shay Elliott Memorial Classic in Bray tomorrow is the big event this weekend with the evergreen Malcolm Elliott returning to defend his title.

CIARAN POWER’S performances in the Kerry Mountains during Rás Mumhan over the Easter Weekend could strengthen his claim to a place on the Irish team for the Olympic road race.

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.

TRALEE’S Denis Dunworth has been named in the An Post Sean Kelly Development squad for the traditional Pauline Sugrue/Ras Mumhan 4-Day International Cycle Race over the Easter weekend.

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.

Matti Breschel won Thursday’s second stage of the Tour of Ireland cycle race after 166km from Clonakilty into Killarney.

PHILIP DEIGNAN’S performances to date in the Tour of Germany would indicate he has hit form at precisely the right time in advance of the Tour of Ireland professional cycle race which gets underway with an exciting stage from Kilkenny to Cork tomorrow week.

NORWEGIAN Thor Hushovd edged a tight finish to win the fourth stage of the Tour de France on the 193km route between Villers-Cotterets and Joigny.

NICOLAS ROCHE bids to succeed in one of the few races his famous father, Stephen, failed to win when he lines up for the national road race championship in Waterford on Sunday.

PÁIDÍ O’BRIEN, chasing a stage win all week, turned his attentions to overall victory after yesterday’s sensational fifth stage in the FBD Insurance RÁS which ended in Buncrana.

American Jesse Anthony is still in the yellow jersey heading into the fifth stage of the FBD Insurance Ras today.

MART OJAVEE (Estonia Kalev Chocolate) bounced back for a second stage win as Jesse Anthony (US Kodak Gallery) became the first man to retain the race leader’s yellow jersey when stage 4 of the FBD Insurance RÁS to Dungloe developed into another high speed chase.

NORTH American riders took custody of all the important jerseys when the FBD Insurance RÁS arrived in Sligo last evening after a 106-mile stage from Loughrea.

BRIAN KENNEALLY (Myhome.ie/BD BC) was rewarded for his courage with a sensational victory after riding clear of the breakaway group a mile from the finish of yesterday’s 91 mile second stage of the FBD Insurance RÁS from Templemore to Loughrea.

CHRIS NEWTON, who won the overall title in 2003 and 2005, is favourite to claim a third victory in the FBD Insurance Rás which starts in Naas tomorrow morning.

BRIAN KENNEALLY (MyHome.ie/BDBC) won Rás Mumhan in a pulsating finish in Killorglin yesterday.

RAYMOND CLARKE (Dan Morrissey/Carrick Wheelers) will wear the race leader’s yellow jersey when Rás Mumhan leaves Killorglin today on the first of the three road stages.

BRIAN KENNEALLY is bidding to reclaim the Rás Mumhan title — the highlight of the Easter Weekend cycling programme — but he admitted it will be a tall order.

THERE was no change at the top of the General Classification as members of the Legia Bazylisek team from Poland filled the top two positions with Ireland’s Ryan Connor third at the end of yesterday’s fifth stage that took the FBD Insurance RÁS from Kilrush to An Ceathru Rua.

THOMAS RABOU (Team AltiPower) justified his status as favourite by claiming the first yellow jersey of the season in the Credit Union Rás Mumhan in Kerry yesterday.

THE Murphy & Gunn/Newlyn Group team will show the full extent of their powers when they line up for the Credit Union Rás Mumhan in Kerry this weekend, with the top two from last year, John Dempsey and Conor Murphy, in the line-up.

THE Martin Donnelly/Sean Kelly professional cycling team will make its Irish debut in this weekend’s five stage Credit Union Rás Mumhan in Co. Kerry.

EUGENE MORIARTY (cycleways.com) returns to his native Listowel on Sunday bidding to reclaim the trophy that perpetuates the memory of the man who inspired him to take up cycling, his late grandfather, Gene.

Brendan Mooney

NICOLAS ROCHE, whose illustrious father Stephen won the world title as part of his triple crown in 1987, will get the Irish interest underway when he goes in the 30.8k U-23 individual time trial at the world cycling championships in Hamilton, Ontario, today.

DAVID O’LOUGHLIN travels south this weekend when he will be favourite to win the 21st edition of the Gene Moriarty Cup cycle race in Listowel on Sunday (1pm) and will again figure in the Crotty Cup, promoted by West Clare Cycling Club, in Kilrush on Monday (12.30pm).