The An Post-Chain reaction team may have fielded just two Irishmen out of a possible five in its line-up for this year’s An Post Rás, but it is the Belgian-based squad who drew first blood on stage one into Roscommon yesterday.

It was as easy as one, two, three for the An Post Chain Reaction team yesterday as Sam Bennett led teammates Nicholas Vereeken and Shane Archbold over the line in Skerries for a clean sweep of the podium places on the last stage of the An Post Rás.

With just two stages remaining in the An Post Rás, Belfast man Connor McConvey remains in second place overall, tied on time with race leader Marcin Bialoblocki of the UK Youth professional team.

Moreno De Pauw of the Belgian national team used his track racing experience to sprint clear of a three-man breakaway group in the final 400m to take victory on stage five of the An Post Rás in Mitchelstown yesterday.

Marcin Bialoblocki became the first rider on this year’s An Post Rás to retain the yellow jersey when he finished eighth on stage four yesterday in Glengarrif where Russian Kirrill Pozdnyakov took stage victory for the Irish-run Synergy Baku team.

It was all change on the An Post Rás yesterday as a seemingly flat second stage delivered a new stage winner and another Irish race leader into Nenagh.

Another cracking day’s racing on the An Post Rás saw the Swiss team play pass the parcel with the yellow jersey as Nicolas Baldo took over the race lead and young Frenchman Thomas Rostollan lived up to his nickname of ‘little motorbike’ to claim stage three into Buncrana.

Another fast and furious day on the An Post Rás saw a new rider in the yellow jersey yesterday as Swiss professional Pirmin Lang of the Atlas Personal Jackroo team outsprinted a seven-man lead group to take victory on stage two into Gort.

MATT BRAMMEIER (HTC Highroad) completed a remarkable weekend when he reclaimed the elite road race championship title yesterday while also taking the national time-trial crown on Friday night at Emyvale, Monaghan.

DEFENDING champion Nicolas Roche, his cousin Daniel Martin who won the title a couple of years ago, three-time winner David O’Loughlin and another former winner, David McCann will line up for the national road race championships in Sligo tomorrow.

THIS year’s Tour of Ireland international cycle race has been cancelled due to “financial difficulties” but the organisers are already making plans for its return in 2011.

ALEXANDER WETTERHALL (Sweden Team Sprocket Pro) left many of the big names scratching their heads in wonderment after he built on his midweek escape to claim overall victory in the FBD Insurance Rás which concluded before a huge crowd that turned out in glorious sunshine in Skerries yesterday.

Alexander Wetterhall (Sweden Team Sprocket Pro) left many of the big names scratching their heads in wonderment after he built on his midweek escape to claim overall victory in the FBD Insurance Rás which concluded before a huge crowd that turned out in glorious sunshine in Skerries today.

Irish rider Mark Cassidy (Belgium An Post Grant Thornton M. Donnelly Sean Kelly) realised a childhood dream today in Kilcullen when he won the penultimate stage seven of this year's FBD Insurance Rás.

ALEXANDER WETTERHALL (Sweden Team Sprocket Pro) hung on to the race leader’s yellow jersey by six seconds as Jon Tiernan-Locke (Britian Rapha Condor Sharp) powered his way to victory at the top of Seskin Hill where a huge crowd gathered to welcome yesterday’s fifth stage of the FBD Insurance Rás.

NEW leader, Alexander Wetterhall (Sweden Team Sprocket Pro), will wear the yellow jersey when the FBD Insurance Rás arrives at the top of Seskin Hill tomorrow, but it would take a big prediction to identify the possible leader when the race departs the spiritual home of cycling.

Philip Lavery, one of Ireland’s most exciting young riders, will be in the line-up for this weekend’s FBD Insurance Rás after all.

PHILIP LAVERY, one of Ireland’s most exciting young riders, will be in the line-up for next week’s FBD Insurance Rás next after all.

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.

The An Post Sean Kelly cycling team has today announced its team for this years FBD Insurance Rás which starts this Sunday in Dunboyne.

The cycling team which bears the name of Irish cycling legend Seán Kelly has outlined an ambitious list of targets for the coming season and revealed that they are upping a gear in a bid to land success.

COLOMBIAN Fabio Duarte took his country’s first amateur world road race title at the U23 cycling championships in Varese, Italy, yesterday.