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.

BIG TIME road racing returns to Blarney this weekend when the Blarney Cycling Club Festival of Cycling gets under way tomorrow night with the Osborne Butchers Criterium, followed by the Donal Crowley Memorial and Kay Stratton Memorial races on Sunday.

IT IS suggested that in the interests of “health and safety” Cork County Council will propose that a large part of the funds which have been ringfenced to restore the historic Innishannon Tower in Co Cork will be used not only to clear the debris left after the collapse of part of the structure in the winter of 2007 but also to reduce the height of the rest of the tower.

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.

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.

HOLLAND have two of the race favourites at this weekend’s Kerry Group Rás Mumhan and while neither figured in yesterday’s opening stage, their rookie compatriot Robert-Jan Mol (West Frisia Combilift), stepped up the steal the limelight.

WITHIN hours of arriving in Ireland Dutch cyclist, Dion Beukeboom, outsprinted the race favourites Brian Kenneally and Paul Griffin to win the first stage of last year’s Kerry Group Rás Mumhan, and trailed them all the way to the finish three days later when he ended up third overall.

NEW ZEALAND are to enter a team for the first time in the prestigious FBD Rás (May 23-30).

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.

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.

The Fourth Stage of the FBD Insurance Rás is due to get underway this morning.

Chris Newton has retained the leaders yellow jersey after the third stage of the FBD Rás.

Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness has met with the parents of the victims of the IRA bomb attack on Warrington eight years ago.