Spotlight falls on Blarney as festival to take over town

Following the success of the An Post Rás last week, the action becomes more localised this weekend when one of Ireland’s most storied cycling clubs, Blarney CC, host their annual June Bank Holiday festival of racing.

Top billing for the weekend is the Donal Crowley Memorial on Sunday — won last year by local man Eddie Barry — where the riders (A1 to A3) will tackle eight 10km laps of the tough Blackstone Bridge circuit.

The Kay Stratton Memorial, for A4 riders, should also draw a large crowd.

Sign-on for both races is at Blarney GAA club from 10am.

There is also a full programme of underage racing with U12s to U16s all catered for. Racing starts at 12 noon.

Saturday night will see the town come to a standstill for the hugely popular Osborne Butchers Village criterium, starting at 7.30pm.

The race is 50 minutes plus five laps of a 1.5km loop. There are no one-day licences available for this and sign-on is from 6pm.