CYCLING:HAVING SECURED his qualification for the Olympic Games, Martyn Irvine's plan to temporarily revert to road racing to build up his base condition will see him take part in this year's An Post Rás with the RTS Racing team.
Irvine will join up with 2004 race winner and multiple stage victor David McCann on the Taipei-registered squad, with the Scottish climber Alex Coutts and the Taiwanese domestiques Chang Wei Yi and Huang Chin Lung completing the squad.
“Stage wins will be the first priority,” said McCann. “But if it works out we can go for the overall, then why not?”
Irvine finished seventh last week in the Omnium event at cycling’s track world championships in Melbourne. The result copperfastened his place in the same competition in the London 2012 Games.
Meanwhile former race sponsor FBD Insurance has announced its return to backing cycling, confirming this week that it would fund Cycling Ireland’s new Team Talent 2020 youth development programme for at least the next three years.
