Viewpoint: Not many out to see colour

"It's not such a big turnout," Kilcullen Cycling Club chairman Liam Walker mused as he checked last minute details for the arrival of the penultimate stage of the FBD Insurance Ras cycle race into Kilcullen.

And it wasn't, really, even though the weather was kind and the Saturday afternoon time a good one to attract local interest. But the arrangements were spot on, and the garda and race marshalls had everything in place for the safety of both riders and onlookers.







The last push for the riders coming in from Gorey was a tough one, up Kilcullen's north hill out of the Liffey valley, to where a welcome to the county by Kildare"s Deputy Mayor Brendan Weld.

The 151ms across the Wicklow Mountains from Gorey might have been expected to bring more attrition than it did, with just one of the 136 riders who started out failing to finish in Kilcullen. The Stage winner was Irishman Mark Cassidy of the An Post Sean Kelly Belgium Team, who got to Kilcullen in a time of 3h 43'48", fractionally ahead of Jakob Steigmiller and Maximilian May from the Germany Thuringer Energie team.

The next morning they all left town again for the final 151kms run to Skerries, where Alexander Wetterhall of Sprocket Promotions, Sweden, was presented with the overall win for the 2010 FBD Ras by Adrian Taheny, Director of Marketing & Sales FBD Insurance Plc.

Bicycle road racing is a 'now they're coming/now they're gone' kind of an affair, which may account for the low spectator turnout for the Saturday arrival. The Sunday morning start had a bit more jizz about it, with the riders being paraded up the town with a team of pipers to the official start.

For some brief minutes over the weekend, Kilcullen had a little more colour than usual to it. It seems a pity not many bothered to come out and see.

Brian Byrne.