Reigning Kerry Group Rás Mumhan champion Damien Shaw believes he has the form to become the first man to win back-to-back titles on the country’s second biggest stage race.

Dan Martin ended Ireland’s 21-year wait for a classic win when he claimed the Liege-Bastogne-Liege crown in Belgium yesterday.

The Visit Nenagh Classic is shaping up to build on the success of last year’s inaugural event, with 200 riders already pre-entered for a two-day programme of racing.

In one of the most dramatic finales to the Kerry Group Rás Mumhan, Damian Shaw of the Aquablue team held onto the race leader’s yellow jersey, but only by a mere four seconds after second placed Harry Sweering (West Frisia) looked destined to take it.

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.

Kerry Group Rás Mumhan race director Tadhg Moriarty has warned riders with designs on making an impact on this year’s event to be “prepared for one of the hardest stages in the history of the race.”

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.

I’m not usually one for trading secrets with guys I want to beat in races, but here’s a confession.

Defending champion Gediminas Bagdonas (An Post) survived a massive crash in the peloton with around 50km to go yesterday to rejoin the front of the race with the help of his team and take victory on stage three of the An Post Rás in Westport 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).

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.

AFTER their sensational performance in the An Post Rás, where they won the Best County team prize for the Carlow Dan Morrissey outfit, Timmy Barry and The Edge cycling team will be back on home territory this coming weekend when they compete in the Blarney Festival of Cycling.

LITHUANIAN rider Gediminas Bagdonas of the An Post Sean Kelly team holds a one minute and 16 second lead at the halfway point of the Rás after he defended the yellow jersey by winning the fourth stage into Castletownbere in miserable conditions yesterday.

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.

LAST YEAR’S Kerry Group Rás Mumhan winner Timmy Barry has ruled out any chance of reclaiming the title and insists a stage win is about as much as he can aspire to, given the quality of the start-list for the race which begins today in Killorglin (4pm).

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.

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.

CHRIS NEWTON goes to the start line in Tallaght tomorrow defending his FBD Insurance Rás title.

HOPES of wresting the FBD Insurance RÁS title back from England’s Chris Newton got a major boost yesterday with news that two-time winner Ciaran Power is making a dramatic return on O’Connell Street on May 21 to lead the Dan Morrissey/Tipperary team.

PAUL HEALION (Murphy and Gunn/Newlyn Group) heads into today's final stage of the Credit Union Ras Mumhan in Killorglin almost certain of victory.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

DAVID McCANN finally got just reward for his endeavours all week when he won yesterday’s marathon fourth stage of the FBD Milk Rás that took the riders from Charleville to Caherciveen with a first brief but testing visit to the Kerry mountains.

STEPHEN O’SULLIVAN (Cycleways Lee Strand) won his first national senior title in the All-Ireland Criterium Championship around the famed Monaghan Road circuit in Cork yesterday.

DAVID O’LOUGHLIN travels south this weekend when he will be favourite to win the 21st edition of the Gene Moriarty Cup cycle race in Listowel on Sunday (1pm) and will again figure in the Crotty Cup, promoted by West Clare Cycling Club, in Kilrush on Monday (12.30pm).

IRISH cyclist Conor Murphy has tested positive for the substance pseudoephedrine, in a test carried out at the Tour of Ulster on May 5th, 2003.

CIARAN POWER may have gone into this year’s FBD Milk Rás as the defending champion but he achieved his main goal for this year yesterday by landing a stage win in a ferocious sprint into Ballina to end an eventful 93-mile third stage from Clifden.

TOMMY EVANS, riding for the Irish Sports Council team, got the FBD Milk Rás off to a flying start yesterday when he won a two man sprint for stage victory with the young Dane, Ari Hojgaard, into Roscrea and claimed the first yellow jersey of this year’s showpiece.

TIMMY BARRY got the perfect boost in advance of the FBD Milk Rás when he reclaimed the Tour of Ulster over the bank holiday weekend – a title he won in magnificent style two years ago.

KEVIN DAWSON will be defending his Credit Union Ras Mumhan title in Kerry over the Easter Weekend when the race will attract a record number of overseas riders.