Good Timing. With the Olympic road race a rapidly approaching blip on the horizon, Ciaran Power's seventh place in Tuesday's Brussel-Izegem semiclassic will do much for his confidence.
Power has spent much of the past month contesting tough, hilly races in Italy but reverting to flatter, faster races brought approval. "I felt the best I've felt in a long time," he said afterwards. "It's nice to be able to get stuck in to the racing again."
Power's next appointment is in tomorrow's Paris-Brussels semi-classic, followed on Sunday by another Olympic warm-up race, the Grand Prix des Fourmies. With many of the world's best riders lining out, the weekend will afford Power a good assessment of his current form. A similar assessment, albeit half a world away, is also on the cards for another two of the five riders on the Irish Olympic squad. David McCann and Robin Seymour travelled to Australia on Monday, and their recovery from jet lag will be gauged in the second longest race on the international calendar, tomorrow's 275km Melbourne to Warrnambnool Classic. Also in action this weekend is a national squad comprising David O'Loughlin, Patrick Moriarty, and Brian Kenneally (who is due to begin a trial with the Linda McCartney squad on September 16th). The trio will contest Sunday's Tour of the Peaks in Derbyshire, without Mark Scanlon and Tommy Evans who indicated they do not wish to travel in advance of Tuesday's departure for the Tour of Hokkaido in Japan. Stephen Gallagher has stepped in to fill a slot on the reduced squad.
There is a change, too, in the Leinster team: Brian Lennon was named for his first assignment abroad two weeks ago, but has had to relinquish his place due to a bad cold. Shane Prendergast now joins Paul Healion, Shane Baker and Gary McQuaid in the world-ranked race. For those at home, the Navan Road Club are promoting two races in Kilmessan in Meath this weekend. Following the Beech mount Cup tomorrow evening, former Ras organiser Joe Christle and previous Navan road club president Leo Collins are commemorated in the Collins-Christle memorial on Sunday. The Leinster CF league race listed in error in the calendar will instead be held next Saturday.
On October 2nd RTE commentator Treacy Piggot will adopt a different mount to that favoured by her father Lester when she joins 34 other Blazing Saddles fundraisers as they cycle 3,000 miles from San Diego to South Carolina. Averaging 117 miles a day, the fund-raising wing of the National Council for the Blind of Ireland will also include former world number one Sean Kelly.
