TRALEE Chamber Alliance has described the second outing of The Kingdom Alliance Sportive (TKAS) as a great success with plans already in place to make the 2015 event even more successful.
Close to 350 cyclists took part in TKAS 2014 which was held over the June Bank Holiday Weekend and while it was not a race in the traditional sense, the winner of the Yellow Jersey was Ballyheigue’s Tom Brendan O’Connor.
The Kerry Head peddler set the fastest time of 14 hours 34 minutes and four seconds (14:34:04) for the 300 mile three-day marathon. Tom B’s time completely obliterated the time of 15:50:39 that he recorded to win the Yellow Jersey in 2013.
The CEO of Tralee Chamber Alliance, Kieran Ruttledge, said: “We were delighted to see so many women and men making the effort to enjoy a spectacular cycle around three scenic routes in Kerry. Tralee was the starting point for each of the circuits with 242 opting for the 100 mile route and 102 selecting the 50 miles route. The men outnumbered the ladies by 259 to 85 but the most encouraging feature of the event was that nearly 70% of the participants were from outside Kerry which means the local accommodation providers benefitted from TKAS. The glorious weather took many of the cyclists by surprise resulting in a few stories of sunburn, however it added to the appeal of the routes.”
All stages offered the option of a 50 mile or a 100 mile route with an option to do 1, 2 or all 3 days as required. Stage One took the cyclists from Tralee to Killarney, Stage Two on Sunday brought them out west to Dingle and Stage Three saw the participants explore the North Kerry coastline.
