Even the weather came out for the cyclists

BIG-TIME cycling returned to Irish streets and byways yesterday — and the public came out in their thousands to lap it up.

A couple of decades from the heyday of Sean Kelly, Stephen Roche and company, and 15 years since the demise of the late-lamented Nissan International Classic, the new Tour of Ireland has brought the top professionals for a five-day jaunt around some of the country’s most breathtaking scenery and iconic streets.

And while the glory days of Irish wins in the big international events may be long gone, the appetite is still there for such a spectacle.

Yesterday’s first stage of the 2007 Tour culminated in a finish along Cork’s South Mall, after the 150-plus strong peloton started in historic Kilkenny and wound its way through Clonmel, Carrick-on-Suir, The Vee and Lismore before heading for the southern stretches of Midleton and two tough climbs up Cork’s St Patrick’s Hill.

Crowds lined the streets to cheer on the competitors, who included Irish national team leader Nicolas Roche, son of Stephen.

The tour is being promoted by Fáilte Ireland, with worldwide TV coverage showcasing the Irish scenery — bathed yesterday in glowing sunlight for a change.

A breakaway group of 10 led the tour into Cork city along the north quays before heading up St Patrick’s Hill, down to St Patrick’s Street, and into South Mall via Grand Parade for the finish.

Accustomed as they may be to climbing the Pyrenees and the Alps, the steep St Patrick’s Hill still had an energy-sapping effect on the pros, breaking up the groups and helping Belgian Stijn Vandenberg into an unassailable lead.

“It was very steep,” said the winner after receiving his award from Cork’s lord mayor Donal Counihan (or Donald Coynihan as American commentator David Towle insisted) and then spraying unsuspecting photographers with champagne. “In Belgium we also have steep ones, but this one was so very steep.”

Stijn’s Unibet team aren’t allowed race in some countries, where advertising by betting companies isn’t allowed, but that was never going to present a problem in flutter-happy Ireland.

On his first visit, which has provided his first win as a professional, he has already fallen in love: “It’s a beautiful country. There was a very nice crowd.”

By the time the presentations were made, the rest of the peloton had reached the finish, followed by the dreaded “broom wagon” that collects fallen riders, which housed just one victim yesterday evening.

Today the cyclists will be driven to Clonakilty for the start of the second stage, which will take them through Skibbereen, Bantry and Kenmare before the finish in Killarney.

The tour ends on Sunday in Dublin.