Exciting weekend of racing at Ras Mumhan 

Back to County Kerry for a fourth Easter in succession, with Luke Mannings and Harry Howlett back for a second go after last year, and Ben Arey, Kaleb Herbert and Ethan Squires all making their debut here. While the Halesowen team compositions have changed over the years, one thing hasn’t – whatever the Easter date, the weather always seems to pack a punch down in SW Ireland for the Ras Mumhan, and this year was no exception.

The wind began blowing for the Good Friday lunch-time team time trial moved this year to a more coastal route from Ballybunion to Asdee, over a 9.2km course, although thankfully the roads stayed dry. Hillier than the course used for in 2024 and 2025, this needed careful pacing to keep a team together. Starting midway through the order, the Team’s five finished four together in a time of 10min 26sec, giving them fourth on the leader board behind eventual stage winners Orwell-Pinergy.

They were helped by a practice session the day before, and a plan to have the two riders with the biggest chain rings, Luke and Ben, do the bulk of the work on the descent to the finish. There was a wait for the other teams to finish, but only the mega-strong Foran team put any time into the Academy riders, giving them 5^th on the stage, and some serious scalps including the likes of Powerhouse and Velo Performance. The margins over a short distance like this are tight, evidenced by the fact that 6 teams finished within 10sec of the quintet, who were rightly delighted at the team’s best stage placing to date.

With the wind still blowing, the afternoon stage over 80km with a 5km early climb was always going to be eventful, and there were mechanicals for Ben – who made it into dispatches as one of the first attackers – and Kaleb which left them way down in the standings. But on the uphill finish to Knockanure, Harry, Luke and Ethan were all safe in the chasing bunch behind a 15-rider move which gained a minute, led in by Josh Callaly of Velo Performance.

Stage two on the Saturday was a daunting proposition, crossing the Ring of Kerry with the first category climbs of Balligasheen and the super-steep Coomanaspic, but it was storm Dave that was worrying the organisers with high winds and torrential rain forecast. That prompted them to bring the stage start forward by 30 minutes and to have two alternative finishes in place in case the stage needed to be shortened.

The rain smashed down not long after the riders left Killarney, but the howling head wind meant the bunch stayed largely together once Balligasheen had been tackled, and it wasn’t until after the first passage of the finish line in Portmagee that the race took shape, with eventual winner Danilo Rinwyi of Foran making his move to bridge to an early break of four after Coomanaspic with 12 kilometres remaining. Behind, Ben had rejoined the main bunch after an epic descent off Balligasheen, giving the Team four riders in there as unfortunately Kaleb had abandoned earlier in the stage.

The stage win went to Nick Hoorsman of West Frisia, with Rinwyi in the same time and moving into yellow, with a group of 20 fighting out 3^rd place. Harry was 19^th out of this group, moving to 13^th overall, with Ethan, Luke and Ben in the next groups, Ethan moving up to 35^th overall, Luke 41^st.

Stage three was another old favourite, laps around Millstreet and Macroom followed by the dragging second cat climb of Mushra and the eight kilometre ascent to the bleak moorland of the Kerryman’s Table. An early move including two Foran riders underlined the control that the London team had over the race, which was all together on Mushra, with an elite group starting the climb to the Table.

Here the stage was won by Curtis Neill of Velo Performance with Rinwyi holding yellow, and behind Harry again climbed with the best for 17th, albeit slipping a couple of places to 15^th overall. Ethan and Luke finished together in 47^th and 48^th, with Ben also climbing well for 62^nd.

That left the traditional finale around the town of Killorglin, three laps of a flat 15 mile circuit, with 8 town centre circuits. There were a couple of early breaks but it came down to the repeated climbs into the main square, with Gabriel Dellar of Ride Revolution going clear late on to take the stage, while the Academy riders all held their positions, and Ethan managed a good run in the bunch sprint for 8^th, with Harry 20^th.

That left Harry with 15^th, a consistent finish given in the previous three editions the Team’s best riders were 15^th, 14^th and 16^th, Ethan 36^th, Luke 38^th, and Ben 73^rd. In team standings, the Academy was 9^th out of 25.

Photos: Caroline Kerley