Mark Dowling plays down prospects of securing back-to-back titles

Kerry Group Rás Mumhan champion Mark Dowling has played down his chances of repeating his heroics of 12 months ago when the race rolls out of Killorglin on Friday.

The four-day event is only second to the An Post Rás in terms of prestige and last year, Dowling joined many of the domestic scene’s luminaries with a gutsy win against the odds.

The DID Electrical Dunboyne man has been in good form of late, winning the Des Hanlon Memorial nine days ago, but believes it’ll be nigh on impossible to secure back-to-back wins in Kerry. “I’ll be one of the most-watched men in the race courtesy of last year,” said Dowling, “so to win is going to be extra hard.

“I came in a little under the radar 12 months ago and probably wasn’t regarded as one of the favourites. And the fact I only took the yellow jersey in the final kilometres is something I’m unlikely to do again.

“I’m in good form, stronger than last year and I just won probably the hardest one-day race on the calendar. But a lot of luck is needed to win too.”

One man who will be going all out is last year’s runner-up Paddy Clarke.

The Mayo man was cruelly denied a career-best win and he’ll spearhead the Fitscience team once again.

“Losing last year’s race took me months to get over, I thought I had done enough. It was the best few days followed by the worst few months but I’ve been going okay this year and I think I have a chance.”

There’ll be five former winners on the start-line on Friday, with Sean Lacey (Aquablue), Damien Shaw (Team ASEA), Eugene Moriarty and Stephen O’Sullivan (both DID Electrical Dunboyne) and Dowling all part of a strong 210-rider field.

Meanwhile, the International Cycling Union and Astana Pro Team have dismissed a report that the team of 2014 Tour de France winner Vincenzo Nibali have been stripped of their World Tour licence by the Independent Licence Commission.

Last month the UCI requested that Astana’s licence be revoked by the commission following an independent audit into their procedures, which came after a number of anti-doping infringements by Astana and their feeder team.

On Monday, Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf reported that Astana would lose their WorldTour licence and would only be allowed to apply for a Continental licence, the third tier of professional cycling, saying the decision had been made on March 20.

However, the UCI said the case had not yet been heard. “Following a misleading article published today in Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf, the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) would like to clarify that no hearing has yet taken place in the Astana case and therefore no decision has been made,” a UCI statement said.

The Licence Commission is due to meet with Astana on Thursday, and the team said they believed that meeting would mark the start of the decision-making process.