Cathal Moynihan out to make impact in Rás Mumhan
Four previous winners will line up among the 38 five-man teams that will tackle almost 500 kilometres of hard roads and among them is local man and former stage winner Cathal Moynihan.
The Tralee Manore West Hotel/iBike man last wore the yellow jersey in 2014 when he claimed the opening stage and though he was injured recently, he’s optimistic of challenging again this afternoon and over the weekend.
“Maybe I can make the podium on some stage, perhaps not for the yellow jersey but I’m hopeful of a good weekend,” said the 36-year old former Olympic rower.
“I took the yellow jersey on stage one three years ago and I was second on stage three but will I emulate it again? I’m not sure.
“You need to have really good legs on the day and a lot of things have to go right.
“You need luck but people have done it and if you have the pedigree it’s definitely possible,” he added.
Christopher McGlinchey is the defending champion but he has opted to skip the race in favour of a block of training in Tenerife.
That leaves the door open for a number of challengers and among them are 2014 winner Mark Dowling (Strata3VeloRevolution), 2011 winner Sean Lacey (Aqua Blue Academy) as well as An Post Rás stage winner Eoin Morton and his UCD-Fitzcycles.ie team-mate Ian Richardson.
The race has changed from 12 months ago. Instead of dipping into west Cork on Easter Saturday it will take in much of north Kerry and west Limerick. It will be unknown territory for much of the peloton and Moynihan reckons it will be a very hard and aggressive stage because of that.
“We’re going down to Listowel, Ballylongford, Glin, Athea and Ardagh for a new stage,” he said.
“It will make for aggressive racing as there is no sustained climbing, just hard roads.
“But for me, the standout day is Sunday in Waterville. There are the usual loops around south Kerry but this year we’re going back onto Valentia Island.
“The overall course is about 155 kilometres and taking in the climb of Coomanaspic will seriously test the legs as it comes with just 25k to go.
“That will have the greatest bearing on the General Classification for the weekend.”
The race starts today from Killorglin at 3pm and will return for the finish some time around 5.30pm. Tomorrow’s stage finish is expected in Athea around 2pm while Sunday’s finish should be around 3pm.
And Monday’s concluding stage is the usual 120-kilometre blast around Killorglin, starting at 10am and finishing some time before 1pm.
Meanwhile, Damien Shaw maintained his six-second lead at the top of the standings after stage two of the Tour du Loir et Cher in France today.
The race continues today with a 211-kilometre trek and concludes on Sunday.
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