Bennett in team for Europeans

CYCLING:FOLLOWING AN excellent win in the GP van de Stad Geel in Belgium on Monday, Sam Bennett will join four other Irish riders in Sunday's European road race championships in Italy.

Bennett showed fine form when he took the Belgian victory, edging out Jonas Vangenechten (Wallonie – Bruxelles), Dries Depoorter (Ovyta – Eijssen Acrog) plus the rest of the field.

He has got in some good racing this year with the An Post Grant Thornton M Donnelly Seán Kelly team and will be in an ambitious frame of mind lining out in Sunday’s 179.4km event.

The Ireland squad will also comprise his An Post team-mate Philip Lavery, Irish under-23 time trial champion Seán Downey, Felix English and Conor Dunne.

Ryan Mullen was due to get things started yesterday in the junior men’s time trial. The programme continues today with the junior women’s equivalent, where Ciara Mulholland will race, and the under-23 time trial. Downey, English and Dunne will go in the latter.

These will be back competing on Sunday, when the junior women’s road race and under-23 men’s event will take place.

Cycling Ireland’s racing programme had a boost last weekend when a paracycling duo fared well in the final round of the track World Cup in Baie-Comeau, Canada.

Mark Rohan dominated the H1 category, winning all six races in the three-round series. Colin Lynch finished an excellent second overall in the C2 standings, netting second in the final road race and fifth in the time trial. Both will compete in the world championships in Denmark in September.

Meanwhile, the American rider Austin Boswell (Hot Tubes) leads the Junior Tour of Ireland after three stages.

He finished in the main bunch on yesterday’s 113km leg to Ballycastle, this group crossing the line one second behind his team-mate Paul Lynch. Cormac Clarke of the Stena Line Ireland team took second.

Boswell had got things off to a solid start on Tuesday evening when he was third in the Windy Gap time trial. James Fourie (South Africa) was quickest, beating his team-mate Steven Van Heerden by just over seven seconds. Darragh Zaidan was best of the Stena Line Ireland riders in fourth.

Boswell took over the race lead on Wednesday’s stage, finishing second behind Kevin Patten (ASG South Africa). Clarke was fifth. The leader now holds a six-second advantage over Patten’s team-mate James Fourie; Clarke is 19 seconds back in sixth.

Finally, the national mountain bike championships will be held in Kilruddery Estate, Bray, this Sunday. The elite race starts at 2pm, with other categories also being fully represented.

The programme gets under way at 11am with underage racing.

WEEKEND FIXTURES

Friday to Sunday: Errigal Three-Day, Letterkenny.

Saturday: Ballivor GP, 7.30pm; Youth track league, Kanturk.

Sunday: National MTB championships, Kilruddery Estate. Underage 11am, main event 2pm. Mark Hayden Memorial, Kildavin GAA Club, Carlow, noon (includes Women's National League); IVCA Warrenstown CP, 9.15pm.