DAVID McCANN (Ireland National Team) just can’t wait for tomorrow’s penultimate stage which takes the FBD Insurance Rás high into the Wicklow Mountains where he feels the destination of the overall title will be decided.

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.

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.

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.