CYCLING:TOUR DE France stage winner Mark Cavendish has been confirmed as leading the Team Columbia squad in this year's Tour of Ireland, which will run from August 27th to 31st.
The 23-year-old from the Isle of Man won the fifth stage of the Tour de France this week, beating the world's top sprinters at the end of Wednesday's stage to Châteauroux. He will aim to add to that tally before the end of the race, and will then travel to Beijing to chase Olympic gold.
Cavendish will be joined by former world time-trial champion Michael Rogers, Bernhard Eisel, Bert Grabsch, Thomas Lovkvist, Adam Hansen and 2008 Giro d'Italia stage winner Marco Pinotti.
The organisers have also confirmed the participation of Team Garmin-Chipotle H30, which have been riding impressively during the Tour de France. They lead the team classification and have taken two top-three placings on stages. Their selection for the Tour of Ireland is due soon.
One of those expected to take part is Irish champion Daniel Martin. He was in action in the European championships in Italy last weekend and had hoped to continue on in his run of excellent form. However, his effort to win the race was foiled by the nature of the course.
"I took off on the last climb and closed one minute and 30 seconds on the leader (Frenchman Cyril Gautier)," he told The Irish Times this week. "But before I got fully across, the bunch caught me with four kilometres to go. The climb was too far from the finish, but I had to try. I showed everyone I was the strongest in the race."
Gautier hung on to take the victory, while Martin finished back in the bunch.
Philip Lavery was the best of the Irish in the junior event. He placed 38th, finishing one minute and 48 seconds behind race winner Johan Le Bon of France, while Michael Duffy was 69th.
Elsewhere, the Irish Paralympic squad had an excellent showing in the Europa Cup Para-cycling road race and time trial in Segovia, Spain, last weekend.
LC1 cyclist Cathal Miller won the time trial there, netting his first Paralympic victory. Enda Smyth was second in both time trial and road race, finishing second overall in the CP4 category. In addition, Catherine Walsh and tandem pilot Fionnuala Ni Bhradaigh were second in the time trial and fourth in the road race, taking third overall in the general classification of their category.
Weekend Fixtures
Friday-Sunday: Junior Tour of Ireland, Castlebar.
Saturday: Open 10-mile time trial, Newtownmountkennedy, 10am. International track meet, Eamonn Ceannt Park, Sundrive Road, 12.30pm.
Sunday: Portlaoise GP. Underage racing at 11am, senior races 12.30pm. Munster road race championships, Cahersiveen, noon.
