Blarney Cycling Club will honour club stalwart Patsy Crowley as they bridge a five-year gap when Rás Tailteann begins next week.

For the first time since 2018, Blarney will be on the start line for stage one, which goes from Navan to Birr, next Wednesday, May 17. The only amateur Cork club taking part in the event will pay tribute to Crowley, who died in March, by having the name of the five-time Rás entrant and father of club chairperson and team directeur sportif Michael on the team kit.

Club treasurer Eoin Allen is one of the A1-graded (the top rank in the country) on the Blarney team and he is delighted that they are once again in a position to enter.

“The club was formed in 1886,” he says, “and obviously there have been ups and downs in that time.

“In the 1970s and 1980s, it was very strong – there was one year in the 80s where they won every national under-age title from U10 to junior.

“The 1990s were quiet but at the end of the decade things picked up again and there are about 75 fully active members now.

“After 2018, some of the team had finished up or moved abroad, so it was a case of trying to develop a team to get back up to that level and then securing fundraising.”

That need for financial assistance is no small matter – it costs about €8,000 to run a Rás team and to that end BCC are very grateful to their main sponsor, Bladez Barbers of the appropriately named Sheares St, as well as Farm Power, O’Sullivan’s Mobility Aids, Forrest Print, National Beauty, EPS and Somega.

The six-strong team (five starters and one reserve) features a wide age-range, from 44-year-old Mark Penfield down to 21-year-old Kieran Hull. Former semi-pro rider James O’Sullivan, Kerryman Benny Cassidy and former international rower Mark O’Donovan make up the team along with current Munster and county road-race champion Allen.

The four-stage Rás Mumhan served as a warm-up for the big Rás, with O’Donovan finishing 22nd in the field of 170 riders from Ireland and England.

Putting the blocks in place to partake at such a high level takes time, as Allen outlines.

“As a minimum, getting up to the A1 grade and making top 20 top ten, you’d want to be putting in 15-plus hours a week,” he says.

“That’s on top of competing in the races at the weekend – unfortunately, the Munster calendar has been decimated the last few years so we’d be travelling to Leinster and Connacht races.

“You’re two or three hours on the road, the race would be on for about four hours and then the journey home again.

“We do have a summer league in Blarney on Wednesday nights. Lads might do an hour, hour and a half of a spin as a warm-up beforehand, then the hour’s racing and another hour after so you could be doing 120 kilometres as part of your training.

“We’ve a winter league as well. There could be up to 40 riders from Blarney alone and it’s well-handicapped with three groups going off at different time intervals.

“Usually there’s a good bit of craic and it evens up the playing field so it builds a good camaraderie and a team buzz.”

Blarney have a strong heritage in the Rás – Patsy Crowley’s brother Donal won two stages 40 years ago, for instance – and, now that they are back, they don’t want to just be making up the numbers.

“There’s so much time and effort going in, we want to be doing more than taking part,” Allen says.

“But then, being realistic, it’s a very elite top level – the fellas winning stages would be the best in the country, some former pros.

“Stage wins would always be the goal, in the 2000s Blarney won a stage in Clonakilty. That might be a bit beyond us at the moment, where we are as a young team, but it’s what we’d be aiming for.”