The new Tralee-based MODA Kingdom Endurance Sports team has some heavy hitters looking to make an impact from the start of the season.
By Brian Canty
The newest team on the domestic racing scene has been unveiled in Co Kerry, with some strong riders having transferred to it from other outfits.
Boasting a 10-man roster under the guidance of team director Pat Dunworth, MODA Kingdom Endurance Sports is looking to make an immediate impact.
The squad has some real horsepower in its ranks including, amongst others: Eddie Barry, formerly of Liquidworx-Fitscience and Planet Tri; Benny Cassidy, John Brosnan and John Mannix, all formerly Killarney CC; and former Tralee BC rider Denis Dunworth.
The riders will race on MODA Finale bikes, with the UK-based brand looking to break into the Irish market.
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Tralee sports shop Kingdom Endurance Sports has come on board as the team’s second title sponsor.
The Kerry-based outfit will have a full back-up crew at races including masseurs, a soigneur and a caterer; making it one of the best prepared on the domestic front.
Eddie Barry won the Silver Pail GP in Cork last year riding for the Liquidworx-Fitscience squad. He'll be one of the MODA Kingdom Endurance Sports cycling team's main hopes of success this year.
Dunworth, whose son Denis has ridden for the An Post Sean Kelly team in the past, said he’s excited about the project.
“Our aim is to be competitive from the off and also to offer value to our sponsors in the first season,” he said.
“We are in this for the long term but it’s important that we compete with the big teams from the start.
“I feel we have the squad and the team infrastructure to do that.”
One of the bigger guns on the new team, Eddie Barry is a quality rider.
He was one of a small group that managed to break Aquablue’s monopoly on races in Munster last year.
Barry, who leaves Ballina-based Liquidworx-Fitscience after one year, won the Silver Pail GP in April with a late attack and his new squad will be looking for more of the same from him in 2015.
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Benny Cassidy in the blue jersey on the laps of Killorglin during the final stage of the Kerry Group Rás Mumhan last year (Picture: George Doyle)
Benny Cassidy is an excellent climber and won the blue jersey for best A2 at Kerry Group Rás Mumhan last year.
He rode the An Post Rás a month later and improved as the week went on.
Denis Dunworth stopped racing for a number of seasons after being based in Belgium but returned to competing in recent years.
Last Easter he and his team mates had the unenviable task of trying to protect the yellow jersey of Cathal Moynihan at Kerry Group Rás Mumhan and did a good job for as long as they could.
Mannix and Brosnan also rode will to keep Cassidy in the blue jersey at the same race when he assumed the lead in that classification on Saturday’s stage into Kenmare.
That teamwork will be crucial to the new squad’s success in 2015, especially as it will go up against the new Team ASEA and Aquablue.
A former An Post-Sean Kelly team rider, Denis Dunworth has made the move from Tralee BC to MODA Kingdom Endurance Sports (Photo: Sean Rowe)
The remaining riders in MODA Kingdom Endurance Sports are: George Doyle, Christopher Dunworth, Mark Houlihan, John Mannix, Mark Nolan and James White.
Director Pat Dunworth said his riders would aim for local events and the biggest races on the home scene.
“The team will make its racing debut in the Lacey Cup next month before tackling one of their biggest tests of the season, the Kerry Group Rás Mumhan over the Easter weekend,” he said.
“As well as that we’ll be entered in the National Championships in June.
“But before that we’ll ride the Des Hanlon, the VisitNenagh Classic, Rás Mumhan, the Shay Elliott and the Tour of Ulster.
“We’ll also be racing around Munster each weekend.”
The team's other sponsors are: Rubena Tyres, Lake Cycling Shoes, Tralee-based ‘robotics’ company Reamda, Moriarty’s Civil Engineering, McDonalds Kerry, Sean Og’s B&B in Tralee and the Ballyroe Heights Hotel, also in Tralee.
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