Picture: George Doyle
KILLARNEY Cycling Club is adding a fresh dash of colour to the 2020 peloton by presenting a club kit with the Kerry County stripe to the current Kerry road champion, John Brosnan.
Club Chairman, Mark Murphy, said that while the stripe acknowledged the club’s county champion, it was also a recognition of the significance of the event in Kerry cycling.
“The county championship is prestigious in Kerry and it is important in the tradition of the sport here. Some great champions have won it since it started in 1952 and riders want their names on that trophy,” he said.
The first Kerry Road Championship was held in Kenmare in 1952 and it was just 10 miles long – reflecting the infancy of road-racing then – and some riders were on fixed-wheel track bikes.
It was won by 15-year-old Gene Mangan and three winners in the 1950s – Mangan, Paudie Fitzgerald and Mick Murphy – went on to win the Rás Tailteann.
Mark Murphy added that presenting a club jersey with the county stripe was also a reflection of the club’s strength-in-depth in recent years.
John Brosnan’s win in 2019 was the third successive win for the Killarney club, with Conor Kissane having winning the two years previously.
Brosnan’s win came out of a five-man break that developed half-way through the 2019 race. Killarney had the advantage with three men – Brosnan, Conor Kissane and Marcus Tracey – up against two from Tralee Manor West,Cathal Moynihan and Cormac Daly. Kissane took second place from Brosnan and Cathal Moynihan came third.
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