Irish pair ready to return to action

CYCLING:Irish ProTour professionals Nicolas Roche and Philip Deignan are both expected to return to competition in the Polynormande race in France on Sunday week. Roche (23), has been training at home in the south of France and will compete there, then the two day Paris-Corrèze event on August 8th-9th.

After making his return from injury in the Polynormande event, Deignan will then compete in the Tour of Germany from August 8th-16th. Both riders will then travel back here for the August 22nd start of the Tour of Ireland.

The field for the five-day, 2.1-ranked international event has expanded further with the recent news that the Swiss-registered Team LPR Brakes Pro Continental team will join three ProTour squads and a collection of Pro Continental and Continental teams in the Irish tour.

The latter listing will now also include the Plowman Craven/Evans Cycles team, led by former New Zealand road race and time-trial champion Gordon McCauley.

Ireland will have its own continental team taking part; Mark Cassidy's strong performance in last weekend's European championships is a strong boost to the morale of this Murphy and Gunn/Newlyn Group/M. Donnelly Seán Kelly squad.

Cassidy was 14th in the tough 168-kilometre event, despite crashing and needing to change his bike with three laps to go.

His strong result follows on from a fine second place in the 1.2-ranked GP Hénin Beaumont Dourges last Sunday week.

Irishwoman Louise Moriarty has also been faring very well abroad. The Global Racing Team/Winningsolutions.ie rider finished an excellent eighth overall in the Tour de Bretagne Féminin last Sunday, ending the five-day race 54 seconds behind the winner Marina Jaunatre (Vienne Futuroscope). She was also seventh in the points classification and Global Racing was third out of 17 squads competing.

Meanwhile, Robin Seymour took a remarkable 14th consecutive cross country mountainbike championships last Sunday, dominating the elite men's event in Tollymore Forest Park in Co Down.

The Team Worc rider competed the eight-lap event four minutes and 51 seconds ahead of closest challenger Niall David (IMBRC), with former Irish cyclocross champion Roger Aiken (Banbridge CC) finishing five minutes and 54 seconds back and taking bronze.

The elite women's race saw a change at the top, with Beth McCluskey (Epic) dominating the event ahead of 12-time women's champion Tarja Owens (Team Worc). McCluskey finished seven minutes and seven seconds clear, with Cait Elliot (UCD) taking bronze. Other winners were junior rider Liam McGreevy (Banbridge CC), expert class Vyain Sogno (Team Work), master Joe McCall (K Capital Source), veteran Gerry McCabe (Cuchulainn CC), and sports riders Michael Cowan (Chain Reaction Cycles) and Anne Duffy (Newry Wheelers).

FIXTURES: Friday - Sunday:Bobby Crilly 3 Day, Antrim. Stage 1 starts in Crumlin at 7.30 pm. Saturday:Track training, Eamonn Ceannt Park, Sundrive Road. Starts 11 am. Sunday:Eddie Tobin Memorial, Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford. Starts noon. Connacht road race championships. For details call John Brennan at 0949025966.