Kanturk town, and team, abuzz for historic Rás Tailteann race start

COMPETING in the historic Rás Tailteann is perhaps the biggest aspiration of many Irish cyclists, and this year five young Kanturk men are getting the opportunity to test their mettle along the challenging route of this year’s five-day race.

Locally-based U23 riders Ben Murphy, Padraig O’Sullivan, Arnaud Dumoulin, Ronan Tuomey and Seán Tarrant make up the O’Leary Stone team that are taking part in the race and their coach Danny Curtin told The Corkman earlier this week that they were “feeling good” ahead of its first stage travelling from Tullamore to Kilmallock on Wednesday (May 22).

Given that the second stage of the Rás will start in Kanturk (Thursday morning) and that its reigning champion Dillon Corkery is a Banteer man who previously raced for O’Leary Stone, Danny said it was important for the local club to put forward a team.

“They are feeling good. The main objective is to just get around it. It will be a great experience for them, the big boys from abroad will be coming in,” Danny said.

“A lot of these fellas wouldn’t have done a 170km or 180km stage through bad terrain before, but hopefully the weather will be good.”

As the Kanturk cyclists travel the route of the race, which will travel from Kenmare to Cahir on stage three, from Horse and Jockey (Tipperary) to Kildare Town on stage four and from Maynooth to Bective on stage five, Danny and the O’Leary Stone support team will be following them in a car and bus.

The club has been heavily involved in the organising of the stage two start in Kanturk, with everything that needed doing “wrapped up” when Danny spoke on Monday.

To add to the atmosphere at the start line on Thursday morning, the club organised for all the pupils of national schools in the cycling-mad area of Kanturk to come out for it.

“It will bring a bit of a buzz,” Danny said.