IT’S NOT easy being Sam Bennett. Weeks like this, with the country’s showpiece cycling event starting tomorrow, sees a spike in interest for the sport and the number of private numbers flashing up on his phone.

An Post Sean Kelly team manager Kurt Bogaerts today named his team for the 59th edition of the Rás, which starts in Dunboyne this Sunday.

Jon Tiernan-Locke of the Rapha Condor Sharp team won today’s fifth stage of the FBD Insurance Rás from Tipperary Town to Seskin Hill, Carrick-on-Suir.

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.

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.

INJURY has forced newly crowned Rás Mumhan champion Tim Barry out of Sunday’s Des Hanlon Memorial Classic in Carlow. The teak tough Cork man, who came out of retirement to claim the title that eluded him for so long, suffered a broken rib in a freak accident at the end of the Kerry Group Rás Mumhan.

The Sean Kelly/ An Post Professional Cycling team endured a most difficult day in the Dwars door Vlaanderen classic today in Belgium, with just one rider of the eight starters finishing the race.

A FORMER rider in standard-issue team colours with neat red hair pinned down under designer shades, Kurt Bogaerts doesn’t really look it – but he drives like Evel Knievel late for Mass.

The An Post Sean Kelly Team is back on home soil for the first time this year ahead of this weekend’s FBD Rás, which gets underway in Kilcullen, Co. Wicklow on Sunday.

JOY can quickly turn to disappointment for any cyclist but for Mark Cassidy it was heart rending yesterday when a crash on the outskirts of Limerick City stripped him of the yellow jersey and put his FBD Insurance Rás hopes on hold for another year.

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.

The team founded by Irish cycling legend Sean Kelly has been given a major lift today with the announcement that it has signed a lucrative sponsorship deal with An Post for the upcoming season.

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.

IT began with a few notes on the back of a paper napkin, but yesterday in a Brussels suburb, leading figures from the world of sport gathered for the official dedication of the Sean Kelly Cycling Academy.