Congratulations to Dundalk's "Men of the Rás"

The Louth Cuchulainn Cycling Team had a fantastic outing in the 2012 An Post Rás, with riders Ray O`Shuaghnessy & Michael Barry in particular showing they were well able to mix it with the professional UK & Continental teams. In particular Barry had an outstanding race and if not for a broken bike in stage 3, en route to Gort, would have easily finished in the top 10 county riders overall. Not to be outdone, Colm Quinn, Darragh Mortimor and Myles McCorry rode strong throughout the week, to ensure that Louth finished up as 6th place county team out of the 20 different counties taking part. Surprisingly for it's 55 year histroy, the Rás had it's first ever French winner, 21year old Nicolas Baldo, riding for the Swiss Atlas team. As predicated, the keys stages were Thursday and Friday in the Donegal mountains, were the French man made his winning moves. On the extremely difficult sun baked climbs of Mamore and the Glengesh, huge crowds cheered the riders on sections that had gradients of 25% plus, significantly steeper than enything to be found in the Alps. Cuchulainn Cycling Club wishes to congratulate the 5 Louth riders and the team management for an outstanding performance & becoming "Men of the Rás" Round 3 of the Mountain Bike league was won in commanding fashion by Michael Wilson, improving on his second position the week before. Michael was in the 4th group to start & had to work hard to take the win. On the technical track moving through the riders ahead is that more difficult & Michael showed fine skills en route to victory. Second was Ed Lenox-Conyhgam from group 3, moving up from 4th the previous week. Rounding out the podium was Terry McEneaney, whom had also started with Michael in group 4. The league once again had over 20 riders sign on and continues to go from strength to strength. The road cyclists in the FPM Accountants Summer League continued their racing on Thursday night with Mark Quinn taking his first victory of the year. Winner of round 2 Jim Loughran was home in second position & now has a 1st, 2nd & 3rd for the season, results which are sure to see him near the top of the league table. Brendan Neary was in 3rd place, leading home 2 time league winner Andrew Flood. Sunday the 3rd of June once again sees the return of the 2010 Leisure event of the year the 100km Tour of Louth. This year the event HQ is the Fairways hotel, where hot food awaits the riders upon completion. The event rolls out at 10:00am, with registration open from 8:30am. Once again riders can race against the clock for a platinum, gold, silver or bronze medal. Also on the day is a shorter 50km cycle. Details can be found at www.touroflouth.com Also another date for the diary is June 17th at Saint Helena's Park with the High Nelly & Family Fun Cycle, which is part of National Bike week. The day will see a range of kids activities on the grass at the park, followed up by a short tour of the town's cycle paths. All kids need to partake is a bike and helmet, for a chance to win a medal. The day will feature many High Nelly bikes, which may not be as fast as sleek modern day carbon fiber bicycles, are definitely one for the purists!