Kerry Group Rás Mumhan champion Mark Dowling has played down his chances of repeating his heroics of 12 months ago when the race rolls out of Killorglin on Friday.

New Zealand have a real star in the making in Patrick Bevin after he scorched to another stunning stage win on stage four of the An Post Rás in Caherciveen yesterday, ensuring he retains the leader’s yellow jersey at the halfway point.

Patrick Bevin is the new race leader of the An Post Rás after he stormed to a solo win on the second stage of the race into Lisdoonvarna, Clare, yesterday.

Paddy Clarke takes the yellow jersey into today’s final stage of the Kerry Group Rás Mumhan – level on time with Mark Dowling (DID Dunboyne) – following yesterday’s thrilling third stage.

Scanning the final results from the overall general classification at the An Post Rás which climaxed on Sunday you’d be forgiven for thinking the days of county riders competing in Ireland’s most storied race was at an end, but route director Stephen O’Sullivan refutes such a suggestion.

PAUL GRIFFIN has come mightily close to landing the overall title at Rás Mumhan on several occasions but the teak-tough Tralee native reckons this year might well be his last chance at the yellow jersey.

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.

SAM BENNETT (Tipperary Dan Morrissey) was back up in the thick of the action as Nicholas Walker (Australia Cinelli-Down Under) outsprinted Jaan Kirsipuu (Norway Giant-Veolia) and Monday’s stage winner, Ian Wilkinson (Britain Halfords Bike Hut) for stage glory when the FBD Insurance Rás produced another explosive finish in Scariff yesterday evening.

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.

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.

CIARÁN POWER (Pezula Racing) put five days of misery behind him to win the stage and put himself right up in contention for what would be a sensational third FBD Milk Rás victory at the end of a 112 mile trip from Skibbereen to Clonmel that wrought havoc at the top of the general classification sheet where Simon Richardson (Plowman Craven) now holds the overall lead and former race leader, Stephen Gallagher (An Post/Sean Kelly), moves back up to within 10 seconds of reclaiming pole position.

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.

CIARAN POWER (Pezula Racing) put his hallmark on a spectacular weekend when he won the final stage of the Pauline Sugrue Auctioneers Rás Mumhan, to copperfasten his overall victory in blustery conditions at Killorglin yesterday.

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.

PÁIDÍ O’BRIEN can claim his first national senior title on Friday night in the criterium championship in Killarney where a closed 700m circuit will ensure plenty of entertainment.

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.

BRIAN KENNEALLY from Kilkenny, a member of the Meath Myhome.ie/BDBC team claimed the glory of stage victory while German Tony Martin held onto the yellow jersey when the FBD Insurance RÁS concluded in Skerries yesterday.

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.

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.

EUGENE MORIARTY would dearly love to win the race dedicated to his grandfather, legendary track cyclist Gene Moriarty, in his native Listowel on Sunday but feels that, at this point, it may be a bridge too far.

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.

The Munster pair of Rory Wyley and Eugene Moriarty of the Cycleways.Com had to settle for the minor placings in both the Classic League and the Sheefrey Grand Prix in Westport.

KEN NORGROVE recorded the biggest win of his cycling career as he out-paced the field to claim the 121-kilometre Gene Moriarty in Listowel yesterday.

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.

THOUGH the result was a foregone conclusion there was drama aplenty before Chris Newton (Recycling.co.uk) finally clinched the FBD Insurance Rás title in the Phoenix Park yesterday.

British rider Chris Newtown swept to his second FBD Insurance Rás title in two years, after finishing comfortably in the bunch at the end of today's eighth and final stage criterium in Dublin's Phoenix Park.

CHRIS NEWTON (Recycling.co.uk) faces the most crucial and difficult stage of the FBD Insurance Ras tomorrow when the survivors head for the Wicklow Mountains, but the talented English cyclist is already poised to lift the George Plant Trophy for a second time.

CHRIS NEWTON (Recycling.co.uk) maintained leadership of the FBD Insurance RAS with Malcolm Elliott (Yorkshire Trinity Capital) still the closest challenger after yesterday’s stage.

CHRIS NEWTON, the 2003 winner, took custody of the race leader’s yellow jersey at the end of yesterday’s second stage of the FBD Insurance RAS.

ROGER AIKEN (Louth Safe Cycling), who turned 24 three days earlier, got a belated birthday present yesterday in the form of his first ever stage win as the FBD Insurance RAS got under way with an 84 mile stage from Dublin to Emyvale.

JOHN DEMPSEY (Dan Morrissey Carrick Wheelers) pounced six miles from the finish to claim the overall title as the Killorglin Credit Union Rás Mumhan drew to an exciting close yesterday after four days and 270 gruelling miles around the roads and mountains of Kerry.

PAUL GRIFFIN (Earl of Desmond) will don the race leader’s yellow jersey with a miniscule time advantage of .18 of a second over fellow Kerry cyclist Eugene Moriarty (Cycleways.com) when Killorglin Credit Union Rás Mumhan enters the final day that will decide the overall title over three laps of the 15-mile Beaufort circuit followed by four laps of the 13-mile Donal McKenna Circuit.

DAVID McCANN and Paul Griffin, team mates with the Giant Asia professional team, are the men likely to dictate Credit Union Rás Mumhan in Kerry over the weekend, but they won’t have it their own way when they join forces on the Earl of Desmond team.

DAVID McCANN will begin his build-up to a defence of his FBD Insurance RÁS title in Kerry over the Easter weekend, when he lines up as favourite to win the Rás Mumhan, the perfect prelude to Irish cycling’s showpiece.

Irish international Eugene Moriarty returns from illness to compete in the 22nd Annual Gene Moriarty Cup Cycle Race in Listowel on Sunday, (1pm).

DAVID O’LOUGHLIN produced a sensational performance to claim victory at the top of Seskin Hill but the yellow jersey of the FBD Milk Ras remains, and only just, with Slovenian Valter Bonca.