Irish trio harbour genuine hopes

CYCLING WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS:THE STRONGEST Irish team in well over a decade will line out tomorrow in the Elite road race at the world championships in Mendrisio, Switzerland.

Vuelta a España stage winner Philip Deignan, Daniel Martin and Irish road race champion Nicolas Roche will carry Irish hopes in the 262.2km event, which takes in 19 laps of a tough, 13.8km circuit.

The shortness of the loop relative to other years will make the course particularly hard; as Roche said yesterday, it allows little room for recovery.

“The course is very difficult, definitely harder than last year’s,” he said. “Not just because of the hills, but also because they are so close to each other. It’s been a very long time since there was such a short circuit . . . it means there’s less flat ground to recover on. It’s going to be a real battle.”

Roche got a psychological boost on Thursday when he agreed a new, two-year deal with the Ag2r La Mondiale squad. He had a contract for 2009 and 2010, but following some very strong performances this year, and approaches from other teams, the French outfit decided to tear up the existing deal and give him a new commitment.

His strong Tour de France had a lot to do with the renegotiated contract, and also showed he continues to progress each year. If he has judged his form correctly, he should be in the mix tomorrow.

So too Deignan, who won that stage and finished ninth overall in the Vuelta, and Martin, who has shown promise despite his youth.

Roche said they won’t have an agreed leader tomorrow morning.

“It’s definitely hard to decide who the course might suit best,” he said. “If you look at Plouay (a ProTour race held last month), it suited me more than Daniel, but Daniel was the one up there at the finish, taking fifth.

“Daniel has been going well, Philip has been going extremely good. I haven’t ridden a ProTour race in two weeks but I wasn’t going too bad in the last one, either.

“I think all of us have done the work to arrive at the worlds in good condition. I do think this is one of the most competitive teams Ireland has had in a long, long time.”

The Italian squad of defending champion Alessandro Ballan and Damiano Cunego, plus the Spanish team of Vuelta winner Alejandro Valverde and runner-up Samuel Sanchez, will be clear favourites. Others such as Andy Schleck (Luxembourg) should also be in contention at the end and, Roche hopes, so too will at least one of the Irish trio.

Before then, Siobhán Dervan and Olivia Dillon will line out in today’s Elite women’s road race. Dervan was a fine 24th last year and is out to improve on that achievement in the nine-lap, 124.2 km contest.

Pat McQuaid has been re-elected for a second term as president of the Union Cycliste Internationale. The Dubliner will serve another four years after standing unopposed for the post.