Rás racing will start from Clonee on Sunday

Meath will feature prominently in Ireland’s most famous cycling race, the An Post Eight-Day International Ras, which will start from the historic Dublin Castle on Sunday.

The cyclists will proceed to the Royal County where the race officially gets underway at 12.30pm from Clonee.

From there they will head to Dunshaughlin on the R147 (old N3) where the cyclists are expected to arrive at approximately 12.35pm.

As they cover the rest of the opening 144.6km stage the cyclists will take in Navan (1pm) before moving onto Bohermeen where there will be a prime sprint in honour of the late Phil McDonnell which is scheduled for 1.18pm.

McDonnell was a prominent member with the local club for many years.

From there the cyclists will push on to Kells, where there will be another prime sprint (1.33pm) and onto Lough Crew.

The first stage will finish in Multyfarnham at approximately 3.30pm.

There will be 14 teams from abroad taking part in this year’s Ras from a wide range of countries including Australia, New Zealand, America, Denmark, France, Germany, Netherlands plus five professional outfits from the UK.

For the first time in many years there will be an Irish national team and an An Post Chain Reaction selection.

Included in the 21 county teams will be two sides from Meath (Avonmore and Dunboyne) and one from Louth.

The Meath Avonmore team will be captained by Stephen Byrne with John Clarke, Fergus Fagan, Derek Finnegan and Gary Sheenan completing the squad. This team will be managed by Navan man, Gerry Harte.

The Meath Dunboyne team will be managed by John Wall and will have a strong line-up of Eugene Moriarty, Javan Nulty, Alan Gray, Eoin Lynch and Niall Clarke. Nulty returns to compete in this year’s Ras from a lengthy spell in the south of France.

Many cycling fans around the north east will be keeping a very close eye on the Dublin UCD-Fitz cycles.ie team which will include Slane native Ian Richardson.