Cassidy bids to deliver for An Post
Top cyclists from Ireland and abroad will gather at Dunboyne on Sunday for the start of the An Post Rás Eight-Day International cycle and among them will be Mark Cassidy from Dunboyne who will be riding in the colours of the An Post Sean Kelly combination. Cassidy will be among 185 riders to start out on the opening stage of the race, a 145km spin from Dunboyne to Portumna in Galway. The famous event has attracted teams from a wide variety of countries including New Zealand, USA, Australia, Italy, France, Ukraine, Germany and Belgium. There will also be four teams from Britain, two from the Isle of Man and 19 combinations from various parts of Ireland. The An Post Sean Kelly team is now registered in Belgium and Caissidy will be hoping to repeat the heights he achieved in the Rás last year when he won the second last stage into Kilcullen and also picked up the King of the Mountains title. Cassidy's performance in the 2010 Ras also earned a nomination as the Meath Chronicle / Cusack Hotels sportsperson-of-the-month award. Cassidy will be accompanied this time by two up and coming riders, Philip Lavery and Sam Bennett, as well as Ronan McLoughlin and Pieter Ghyllebert. There will be three Meath teams in the starting line-up. These include the Meath Dectek selection led by the very experienced Stephen O'Sullivan. He will be joined by Neil Delahaye, Tim O'Regan, Mark Dowling and Fiachra O Mhuire. The Meath 53 Degrees North Optimun Nutrition combination will be made up of riders John Mason, Simon Kelly, Michael McCarthy, Eugene Moriarty and Andrew Meehan. The Meath Martin Donnelly team features Derek Finnegan. Once again Tony Brady returns from the USA to compete and he'll be joined by Declan Byrne, James McMaster and John Sower, who came on board as a replacement for Colin Robinson who suffered a broken shoulder following a crash while out training two weeks ago. Navan Road Club member Byrne will be competing in the Ras for the first time. "I started training for this particular race last September and I'm hoping to make a good impact and help the team to a high finish," he told the Meath Chronicle. This year in conjunction with the An Post Rás, there will be a major new cycling challenge, 'Race the Rás' which will involve GAA inter-county stars such as Sean Og O-hAlpin. A group of 50 footballers and hurlers will ride the entire eight days of the Ras and will be joined by additional GAA legends. The idea behind 'Race the Ras' is to raise funds for a number of worthy cancer charities through the Irish Cancer Society and also the sporting charity GOAL. Meath people are getting ready to line the roads of the county to cheer on the 46 amateur cyclists which include former Meath GAA stars Evan Kelly (pictured) and Graham Geraghty. The intrepid duo will take on the 145km route from Dunboyne to Portumna this Sunday morning, 8.0, as part of the 'Race The Rás' cycle in aid of GOAL and the Irish Cancer Society. The group will be sent on their way out of Dunboyne by GAA President, Christy Cooney three hours before the professional riders start the first stage. On Saturday there will be a charity spin, leaving Dunboyne at 10.15 that morning with well known personalties such as former Irish rugby international Mick Galwey expected to take part. Micheal O Muircheartaigh will act as compere.