CYCLING: With the Tour of Britain now just four days away, a solid-looking Team Ireland line-up has been finalised for the 2.1 ranked event.
Giant Asia professionals David McCann and Paul Griffin have raced abroad for much of the season, as have the Belgium-based amateurs Roger Aiken and Páidí O'Brien. The team is completed by national criterium champion Eugene Moriarty and Tommy Evans, two riders potentially suited to the high-speed conditions expected in the concluding sixth stage in London on Sunday week.
The six-man Irish team will be managed by former professional Morgan Fox. There will be an additional three Irish riders in the event. Professional Ciarán Power will hope to show his sprinting speed as part of the Navigators Insurance line-up, while Ryan Connor and Paul Healion will both compete for Team DFL.
The latter two riders showed solid form when they each took third place on stages of the recent Surrey League Five day in England, using the race to prepare for the Tour of Britain.
Healion and Connor expected to line out in the national time trial championships in Carlow on Sunday, with former winner and national record holder McCann also likely to take part.
Meanwhile, it was recently revealed that Ireland will be entitled to enter three riders in the elite world championship road race in Madrid on September 25th.
Qualification for the event was determined by the UCI ProTour and Continental Tour rankings on the 15th of this month, and Ireland's 11th place in the European circuit earned the slots in question. The country is also entitled, through different criteria, to field riders in the under-23 and Elite women's events. Details on the uptake of these slots will be announced closer to the championships.
In other news, the Irish entrants in the recent European Paralympic Cycling Championships fared well, with Irish records and personal bests being set during the eight-day event.
Three visually impaired athletes, Mark Kehoe, Séamus Kelly and Michael Delaney, and one Locomotor Disorder athlete, Cathal Miller, an upper-limb amputee, travelled to Alkmaar in the Netherlands for the championships.
Kehoe and tandem pilot Kevin Forde set new Irish records in the Blind and Visually impaired men's tandem 100-metre time trial and 4-kilometre pursuit, while Miller recorded a new Irish national mark in the LC1 individual pursuit and 1,000-metre time trial. Delaney and pilot Ian McMahon, plus Kelly and pilot Karol Lynskey, all set personal bests at the event.
WEEKEND FIXTURES
Saturday: Leinster Cycling Championships, Narraghmore, Co Kildare. Starts 11am. Connacht Youth Championship, Clonbur. Racing starts at 1 pm.
Sunday: National Time Trial Championships, Carlow. For more information contact Ray McKenna at 086 8415160. Paddy Neary Memorial, Dundalk. Starts 1 pm.
