CYCLING: Former world junior champion Mark Scanlon talks to Shane Stokes about  his professional debut in 2003. Hopefully, the Sligoman will this season become the first Irishman to ride the Tour de France since 1993.

When Stephen Roche rolled, damp-eyed and emotional, down the Champs Elysees after his final Tour de France in 1993, many understood it was the end of an era for Irish cycling. The zenith of Roche, Kelly and Earley had passed and, with all three nearing the end of their careers, there was no sign of any successors breaking through.

The effect on the sport here was pronounced and self-prolonging. Irish riders rode well abroad in smaller events, but these performances didn't compare to what had previously been achieved. The media and general public had grown accustomed to talk of yellow jerseys, Tour stage victories and bids to win the world championships; without these highs, attention shifted to other sports.

The outcome was a predictable one. Falling interest meant dwindling participation; dwindling participation in turn meant a smaller pool of talent and, consequently, decreasing prospects of other world-beating riders coming through.

Many believed the slump would be a brief one. Yet, it was not until 1999 when Irish riders returned to the pro peloton, with Ciarán Power and Morgan Fox securing contracts with small European teams. Power rode the three-week Tour of Italy the following season and finished fifth and sixth on stages, but the Tour de France remained bereft of Irish riders right up to and including this year's race.

The hiatus has extended a full decade after Roche's swansong, a span of time which had been utterly unforeseen. After all, ever since Shay Elliott's debut in 1956, the Irish had regularly been part of the world's biggest bike race, taking 10 stage victories, four green jerseys, holding the revered Maillot Jaune of race leadership on three occasions and winning the race outright in 1987.

Irish riders were part of the lifeblood of the Tour. Without them, we liked to think, the race wouldn't be quite the same.

It's a grotty day in Sligo, the kind of weather best described as character-building. Huge black clouds hang overhead, spitting showers of cold rain, while, offshore, foaming waves churn in the wind. The small village of Strand Hill is utterly deserted, hatches battened down and everyone safely locked away from the elements.

Mark Scanlon is nearing the end of a four-hour spin and is looking cold and bedraggled. A plain blue rainjacket keeps the worst of the weather at bay, but his numb, reddened face shows the strain of training in these conditions. His bike is caked in mud and grit, the blue and cream Decathalon frame splattered with the residue of the 80-mile trip.

Scanlon pedals along by the coast, big legs turning the gear with considerable finesse. Rising out of the saddle, he keeps the momentum going up the short drags and then settles back into his rhythm once over the top. Every movement looks fluid, natural, almost easy.

It requires effort to propel the bike, but countless thousands of miles of training act to hone and refine. Inefficiencies diminish, technique improves. And those wheels end up turning a little quicker.

At this time of year (in late November), many of Scanlon's peers are also out racking up the miles all over Europe. Gone are the days when the first of January marked the moment the bike was wheeled out from storage and dusted down.

These days there seems less and less time off at the end of the season. A typical pro might spend 120, 130 days racing per year, but can forget the idea of a long break afterwards.

While he is sitting at home, enjoying something like a normal life, some young, hungry guy like Scanlon is out racking up the miles on the bike and the hours in the gym, coming to the winter training camps that much fitter and faster and more ready for the season.

Scanlon is, by nature, a driven competitor. But he's now got an extra incentive to work hard. His first year as a pro was a very encouraging one, with a win on stage one of the Tour of Denmark, fifth place overall and sixth in the prestigious GP Ouest France all showing that he's got what it takes.

Now, as he heads into year two, a ride in the 2004 Tour de France looks a distinct possibility. Provided his Ag2r team qualify - which is pretty likely - and he is going well in the run-up to the race, the 23-year-old will be there.

It is, he says after coming in from that damp, drizzling spin, his main goal for the year.

"Hopefully I will get a ride in the Tour. The team are always on to me about doing it; they want me to ride a three-week stage race. They want me to be in the first part of the team because they know I have the potential to be there.

"I really want to ride the Tour, that is my objective for next season. It is something I have always wanted to do, ever since I was a child. In addition to being the world's biggest race, it would also be good for my development, it is bound to give me plenty of endurance."

Scanlon might be forgiven for feeling slightly intimidated by the thoughts of the Tour de France. But, characteristically, if selected, the no-nonsense Sligoman intends to approach the race with an ambitious and aggressive outlook, rather than a more conservative approach.

"I would definitely go and try to get a stage win," he says. "The goal would be to slip into one of the breakaways and take it from there. I am pretty good at doing that in stage racing, I seem to know how to get into a move or make a move. That would be the way for me to try to win a stage."

Scanlon first showed his talent with a sensational win in the junior world championships in Valkenburg, Holland, in 1998. In 2002, he ended the season as the leading amateur rider in France, having been based in Marseille with the VC La Pomme team, but more importantly he had a very successful trial with the Ag2r squad. They liked what they saw and signed him to a two-year deal.

His debut this year was a good one, with those fine performances in Denmark and in the GP Ouest France in Plouay. The latter event is a very prestigious one-day semi-classic, which in 2004 will be part of the World Cup series.

Scanlon got into the break, rode strongly on the hilly course and spent the closing stages setting up his team-mate Andy Flickinger for the win. He expended a lot of energy helping the Frenchman, but was still strong enough to get a high placing himself.

"I was very happy to ride strongly," he says. "I didn't fare very well in the under-23 world championships there in 2000, so this year's performance with the pros shows that I have progressed since then. If I can do well on a circuit like that, there would be no reason why I couldn't get up in a world championship in five or six years time."

If anything, Scanlon's performance in this year's championship shows he could produce big things a whole lot sooner. The road race in Hamilton was held on a very selective course, where tough hills and a ferocious climax saw a host of big names finishing several minutes down.

Scanlon rode an excellent race, though, finishing just 42 seconds behind the winner Igor Astarloa and just 30 seconds off the group sprinting for eighth place. He was 67th, yet with his strong sprint could have finished in the top 20 had he not made a tactical error regarding gear selection.

"I felt all right towards the end, but the final time up the last hill on the circuit, I made a bad gear selection," he said. "I rode up in the big (chain) ring and halfway up it I just blew my lights. I should have really just rode the small ring, like I did on every other lap. But I guess it is all part of the learning experience.

"I think if I had picked the right gear I would have finished with the bunch. The way I work on a climb, I have to spin as opposed to grind. But for some reason I made that stupid mistake."

Despite his error, Scanlon was satisfied with the ride. "Each year since winning the junior title in 1998, there has been a lot of expectation on me at the worlds. This year was different, because I had moved into a different category altogether. I think everybody was expecting the opposite of what I did; they weren't really expecting me to finish. So it was kind of nice to get that ride under my belt, especially as it was a long race on such a hard course."

Former world number one Seán Kelly feels it was a fine display by a first-year professional. "On that sort of tough circuit it is a very good performance," Kelly said. "Mark finished off the season quite well and that is good for him, good for morale. It is looking promising."

On paper, Scanlon has everything he needs to be a top pro. He has a huge lung capacity of 7.9 litres, just shy of the eight litres of five-time Tour winner Miguel Indurain. His power output is very impressive, he sprints strongly and can climb well for a rider of his stocky build. He also has good self-belief and a buck-load of ambition.

Kelly feels that one area which Scanlon needs to work upon is his weight, stressing that self-discipline is vital all year round.

"He has got to look after himself well. Mark carries a little bit of extra weight. He got it down a lot this year and his team want him to get off another bit next year. If he can get that down it will make a big difference.

"At the moment he is being looked at as a rider who would be able to win some of the second-category classic races and stages in the Tour, the relatively flat stages. But I think there is a lot of room for improvement.

"He could become a much better climber than he has been, firstly by getting rid of that extra weight and also because he will, naturally, get stronger as time passes. The distance of pro racing takes a little bit of time to adapt to. The speed of the racing is also that much faster."

Kelly thinks that he will be ready for the Tour in 2004, but says Ag2r's need to ensure Tour qualification through a good early-season campaign must also allow young riders such as Scanlon to have something in reserve for July.

"I think if he is being looked at by the team for one of the Tour places, then it is certainly the right time for it. But, of course, he can't do too much at the beginning of the season. The team will have to realise that he also needs to be building for the Tour, rather than getting worn out with races early on."

Traditionally, Scanlon hits form during the summer months, and this would coincide nicely with the Tour. "It is always the time of the year when I start to go well. I think I need the heat, the cold doesn't agree with me that much. Everyone has their own time of the year they prefer, and that is mine."

In the short term, Scanlon will continue building his form from his base in Marseille. A pre-season training camp with Ag2r will take place in early January, after which he is due to fly out to Australia and get his racing under way in the Tour Down Under. A good campaign of spring racing will help him build form, getting ready for that possible Tour ride.

In addition to chasing a stage victory in the French event, Scanlon has also set his sights on a good performance in the Olympics and amassing 400 UCI points in 2004.

That would bring him well inside the world's top 150 riders, continuing a fine march upwards. But that's just the start of things; he's young, he's relatively inexperienced, but should he deliver on his potential over the next few years, this is a rider who will be making a big, big name for himself.

A decade after Roche's final Tour, Irish cycling is finally coming out of its mini-Ice Age.