It may be seven months to the Sydney games but some of the candidates for the two Olympic slots available are already showing promising form at this early stage of the season. Ireland's most prodigious talent of recent years, Mark Scanlon is making encouraging progress in his return to top fitness, winning the opening stage of last weekend's Boucles de L'Essonnes race in France.
The victory, which is his second in two weeks, was followed by some strong riding during the next three stages although chances of overall honours were effectively ruined by equipment problems during the penultimate 3.7 kilometre time trial. Scanlon finished the race in fourth place, 10 seconds behind overall winner Benjamin Levecot. However, most importantly, after a year blighted by injury he has marked himself out as one to watch this season.
Professional cyclist Ciaran Power continues to vindicate the faith of his Linda McCartney team, having performed well in each of his races to date. The 23-year-old from Waterford is currently participating in the Settimana Ciclista Internazionale in Italy, and will soon learn if the squad will be granted a place in the forthcoming Tour of Flanders.
Likely to ride in the latter is Ireland's other professional, Morgan Fox, whose Tonissteiner team have been granted a berth in the prestigious classic. Although Fox is yet to record a strong result this season, the Athlone rider is confident that his form is coming round.
Other riders on the Olympic squad are also aiming to build towards a strong second half to the season. David McCann and Eugene Moriarty posted encouraging results in the recent Tour of Egypt, while Michael McNena is presently competing in the 11-stage Tour of Chile with the Italian Sintofarm outfit.
On the domestic front, all talk at the moment is of the scintillating form of Meath man Philip Cassidy, who won both the Cycleways Cup at the beginning of the month and last Sunday's Jim McQuaid Memorial in the Phoenix Park. Add to this his two second places to date this season, and Cassidy goes into Sunday's 76 mile Des Hanlon Memorial in Carlow as probably the hot favourite, although Brian Kennealy is also going well.
Cassidy has listed the FBD Milk Ras as one of his targets and if he continues to build on his present form he looks likely to defend the title he won in 1999. Entry forms for this years race have been sent to clubs, with a provisional closing date of April 10th. Entries will be accepted up until one week later although these are subject to a late fee of £10, bringing the cost to £40.
Irish mountainbikers performed well in last weekend's RAV4 British National Points Series in Thethford, with Robin Seymour fourth and Tarja Owens fifth in the womens event. Thomas Juul-Jensen was third in the Juvenile competition.
