In the first of an occasional series journalist and cycling enthusiast, Dan MacCarthy, highlights some of the great cycling routes of Munster. This week, The Adrigole Circuit.

Christopher McGlinchey took the biggest road win of his career yesterday on the opening stage of the Kerry Group Rás Mumhan.

There has been only one Irish winner of the An Post Rás in the last decade and that trend is unlikely to change this year, writes Brian Canty.

Paidi O’Brien won yesterday’s opening stage of the Kerry Group Rás Mumhan after an absolutely bruising day that saw many riders lose over 10 minutes.

With five former winners on the start-line and a large overseas contingent competing, this weekend’s Kerry Group Rás Mumhan certainly lives up to its name as one of the country’s foremost international stage races.

Cycling: Organisers of this year’s Kerry Group Rás Mumhan (April 3-6) have made a number of changes to the third stage of the 2015 event.

IT’S OFTEN been said that we have a lot in common — Hollywood hunk Colin Farrell and I. Apart from the obvious similarities — the simmering intensity, the brooding good looks and the sheer natural talent — we have another thing in common after my recent visit to the scenic Beara Peninsula in West Cork.

GLANMORE LAKE WALK, BEARA PENINSULA

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.”

Businesses have welcomed news that a strategic road on the Cork-Kerry border will not be closed during the height of the tourist season.

Some parts of Kerry will now be more than an hour away from their nearest 24-hour Garda station, following the closure of nine stations in the county, some of which had been there since the days of the Royal Irish Constabulary in the 19th century.

Ten men, nine counties, five days and more than 600km — all in aid of research into childhood cancer.

OLIVIA DILLON claimed her second stage win of this year’s An Post Rás na mBan with a stunning show of strength in yesterday’s third stage of Ireland’s premier stage race for women.

THE second stage of the An Post Rás from Portumna to Kilrush was just over 101 miles but a stormforce headwind turned it into a real test of endurance and if ever there was a worthy stage winner, it was Gediminas Bagdonas, a member of the An Post/Sean Kelly team while Shane Archbold of the New Zealand National Team took the race leader’s yellow jersey.

HUNDREDS of boy and girl racers were in Killarney at the weekend for the International Rally of the Lakes, making it a busy bank holiday for gardaí and a noisy one for residents.

SOME of the most renowned stages in Irish rallying, like Moll’s Gap, Caragh Lake and those in the Béara Peninsula, are the principal reason Tim McNulty opted to compete in this weekend’s Cartell.ie Killarney International Rally of the Lakes, the third round of the Irish Tarmac Championship, instead of last week’s Circuit of Ireland Rally.

THE former stage winner may have ridden the race 17 times and an 18th appearance is in his plans for this year but when Stephen O’Sullivan was handed the title of Route Director for this year’s An Post Rás by his father-in-law, Dermot Dignam, avoided soft options and came up with one of the most difficult routes in the history of the event.

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.

TINO HAAKMAN, runner-up in 2008 and 11th overall last year, will return to Kerry to lead the West Frisia Combilift team from Holland in the Kerry Group Rás Mumhan 4-Day International Cycle Race over the Easter weekend.

THE route for the Kerry Group Rás Mumhan is expected to be finalised next week but the big news is the Easter Saturday stage will retain its traditional toughness.

Today's seven stages of the Ordnance Survey Ireland Rally of the Lakes in Killarney saw very little between the top contenders as they battle for supremacy in this, the third round of the Irish Tarmac Championship.

Rose Martin fishes out a gem called Otter Lodge near no-nonsense Castletownbere

MEET the Colemans — one of hundreds of families set to benefit from a huge charity cycle around Munster which rolls out today.

LAST year, when I wrote that wild mushrooms in my part of Ireland seemed to be as rare as hen’s teeth, a German gentleman (and he turned out to be, indeed, a gentleman) wrote to tell me this was not the case at all. At least not in Kerry, and he could show me various wild fungi growing in profusion — but, on second thoughts, he wouldn’t.

A TOTAL of 27 arrests were made by gardaí during the annual Rally of Lakes, which attracted crowds estimated at between 40,000 and 50,000 to Killarney at the weekend.

THE world’s leading cyclists contest the five day Tour of Ireland next August.

A Cambridge University lecturer returned home from Ireland today after he and his family were rescued from mountains in west Cork with the help of a camera flash.

A WARNING against taking children onto the mountains, especially in winter, was issued yesterday by the Kerry Mountain Rescue Team (KMRT), which brought a man and four children to safety near Adrigole, Co Cork, late on Monday night.

Tommy Barker marvels at the extensive refurbishment of Pound House.

I AM looking for the owner of a camera found on the Healy Pass on Saturday, May 1, after the Rally of the Lakes had gone through.

I NOTE the letter from Robert O’Sullivan (Irish Examiner, August 14) and wonder why he is so intolerant of the statue of Christ overlooking the Healy Pass in Kerry. I hope that Mr O’Sullivan will one day divest himself of all the chips he carries.

RECENTLY I took a trip to The Healy Pass, and what a sight that is for those who like to get in touch with the majesty of the Caha mountain range which divides and unites Cork and Kerry. Forget the old line about Bantry man Tim Healy, MP, the first governor general of the Irish Free State, who was said to have been as crooked as the route they named after him. The Healy Pass, in fact, is a brilliant feat of engineering by hungry men working in the terrible circumstances of the Famine.

CONTAINING some of the most daunting stages in Irish rallying, this weekend’s Ordnance Survey Ireland/ Gleneagle Hotel co-sponsored Killarney International Rally of the Lakes, has several potential winners.