CYCLING: MULTIPLE IRISH national champion Robin Seymour will tomorrow line out in his final Olympic Games in the cross-country mountainbike event.
The Wicklow rider was 28th in Sydney eight years ago and then placed 30th in Athens. He has had a mixed season but won his 15th consecutive Irish title in July and triumphed earlier this month in a round of the Montreal Cup.
Now 37, Seymour is likely to be content if he can better his previous Olympic performances.
In road news, the Irish road-race champion Daniel Martin was an excellent seventh on yesterday's summit finish of the Tour of Portugal, reaching the line 12 seconds behind Nuno Ribeiro (Liberty Seguros). The 22-year-old remains 11th overall, and heads into today's 169.8km eighth stage five minutes 26 seconds behind leader Rui Miguel Sousa Barbosa.
Martin continues to lead the classification for young rider and is clearly in strong form in advance of next week's Tour of Ireland.
Meanwhile, his first cousin Nicolas Roche slipped out of the race leader's yellow jersey on yesterday's mountain stage of the Tour du Limousin. He got into difficulty on the climbs and finished in a large group 29 minutes and 27 seconds behind his team-mate Sébastien Hinault, who won the stage and took over the race lead.
Roche showed good condition when he won the opening stage of the race on Tuesday and placed second the following day.
The performances have helped him secure a contract for 2009 and 2010; Roche has signed to ride with the Ag2r La Mondiale team for the next two years.
SATURDAY: Track training, Sundrive Road, 11am. Stephen Smyth Memorial time trial, Glenshane Road, 11am. Irish hill climb championships, Gap of Mamore (change of venue). Sign on in Linsfort, racing starts at noon. Westport criterium, 7pm.
SATURDAY - SUNDAY: Irish Youth Championships, Kanturk.
SUNDAY: Irish MTB marathon championships, Butter Mountain, 10am. Dickie Comerford Memorial, Phoenix Park. Details on 087 2929913. Northern Ireland 80km time trial championships, Woodgreen, 9am. IVCA 50-mile time trial, Enfield, 9am. Westport GP, 11am.
