Ireland’s Dan Martin suffered one of the biggest disappointments of his career yesterday when he crashed within sight of the line in the iconic one-day Belgian classic, Liege-Bastogne-Liege.

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.

Páidí O’Brien is the new Irish National Elite Criterium champion after using his sprint finish to great effect before a huge crowd in Cork City on Saturday, taking gold from a three-man breakaway.

Sam Bennett capped a brilliant overall victory in the Suir Valley 3-Day last night when he won the final stage on the punishing uphill finish just outside Clonmel.

Sam Bennett holds a 16-second advantage over Dillon Byrne (Maxgear Champions Systems) going into the final stage of the Suir Valley 3-Day today.

The An Post Chain Reaction outfit are the men to beat in this weekend’s Suir Valley 3-Day in Clonmel, Tipperary.

UCI President Pat McQuaid has ensured doubters his nomination from the Swiss Cycling federation for a third term as head of the sport’s governing body is legitimate.

Following a brutal battle with the elements racing around South Kerry for yesterday’s third stage of the Kerry Group Rás Mumhan, Mullingar man Damian Shaw of the Aquablue team regained the leader’s yellow jersey with an awesome show of strength.

Sean Lacey won his fifth straight Lacey Cup in Tralee yesterday, edging out Michael Fitzgerald (Fermoy CC) and talented junior Dylan O’Brien (O’Leary’s Stone Kanturk CC) after 76 kilometres of hilly racing.

Sean Lacey will be going for his fifth straight Lacey Cup title when he takes to the start-line in Tralee tomorrow for the traditional Munster season opener.

Mark Nugent went one better than his runner-up position in the Osborne Butchers sponsored Blarney criterium on Saturday night when he won the Donal Crowley memorial race in Blarney yesterday.

Though they’re less than a year in existence, the Visit Nenagh-Team DMG cycling club have already made a significant impression on the Irish scene, and this Sunday they’ll host their inaugural club race, a race team founder René Van Dam described as like a “continental-style classic”.

Former An Post/Sean Kelly rider Páidí O’Brien blasted to victory in the opening stage of the Kerry Group Rás Mumhan in Killorglin last night, putting his deadly finishing kick to good use on the sharp uphill finish to outsprint Denis Bakker (Ruiter Dakkapellen) and local man Dan Clifford (DID Dunboyne).

Iverk Produce CarrickWheelers will again host its traditional St Patrick’s Day race today with the 100km event finishing on the top of St John’s Hill on the outskirts of the town.

The Davy Fitzgerald managed LIT booked a home quarter-final in the Fitzgibbon Cup after a landslide win over St Patrick’s in Limerick yesterday.

THE number one ranked team in Ireland from 2011, namely The Edge Racing, will operate under a new name for the forthcoming season after Dan Morrissey/ Speedy Spokes cycles announced yesterday that they would co-sponsor the team.

SEAN LACEY of the Edge Racing cycling team did what many deemed improbable when he claimed a sensational overall win at the Kerry Group Rás Mumhan in Killorglin yesterday.

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.

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.

NA PIARSAIGH claimed local bragging rights after crushing neighbours Glen Rovers in the opening round of the Evening Echo Cork senior hurling championship at Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Saturday night.

With the An Post Sean Kelly cycling team announced yesterday for this Sunday's FBD Insurance Rás, breakingnews.ie has compiled a short history of the cycling team in the lead up to the tournament.

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 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.

LANCE ARMSTRONG wants to conquer St Patrick’s Hill in Cork and he will he will grab the opportunity when the Tour of Ireland finishes in the city on August 23.

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.

Nicolas Roche, son of 1987 champion Stephen, will today become the first Irishman to compete in the Tour de France since Mark Scanlon took part in the world-famous race five years ago.

NICOLAS ROCHE (Ag2r) will wear the Irish road race champion’s jersey to the start of the Tour de France in Monaco next weekend although he was still awaiting confirmation from his team last night following his exciting victory in the Elite Road Race championship at Dunboyne yesterday.

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

NICHOLAS WALKER (Australia Cinelli-DownUnder) was the surprise stage winner and Simon Richardson (Britain Rapha Condor) took the race-leader’s yellow jersey, but it was young Sam Bennett (Tipperary Dan Morrissey) who turned in the performance of the day to finish sixth in the uphill sprint when the FBD Insurance Rás arrived in Killorglin last evening.

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.

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.

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.

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.

WITH three of Ireland’s four Olympic cyclists in the field, Sunday’s national road race championships in Midleton promise to be the most competitive in recent years.

EXACTLY 25 years and a day after his father, Philip, claimed his first yellow jersey in the FBD Insurance Rás, Mark Cassidy donned the yellow fleece for the first time in Lisdoonvarna after yesterday’s dramatic stage from Claremorris.

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.

CIARAN POWER (Pezula) would like to take his place among the legends of Irish cycling next week by winning the FBD Insurance Rás for the third time.

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.

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.

CYCLING legend, Sean Kelly, unveiled his new An Post-sponsored cycling team at the GPO in Dublin yesterday and promised some big performances from the 14-man squad which is comprised of a mix of six Irish and eight foreign riders.

SEAN KELLY left Cork yesterday on his Tour of Munster stage across the Vee, on to Cashel and to Limerick but he will be back next Wednesday to see how the young guns of world and Irish cycling handle the notorious St Patrick’s Hill climb when the Tour of Ireland hits it at the end of its first stage from Kilkenny.

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.

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.