More teams sign up Tour of Ireland

CYCLING:Three more teams have been confirmed this week for the Tour of Ireland, which will begin in Kilkenny in just over two months' time. CSC won the ProTour teams classification in 2005 and 2006 and have some of the world's strongest riders riding in their colours.

Brothers Frank and Andy Schleck are two of the best young talents in the sport, with the latter taking second overall in the recent Tour of Italy. Fabian Cancellara is the reigning world time trial champion, while Stuart O'Grady won the Paris-Roubaix Classic this season.

While the composition of the squad will not be confirmed until closer to the August 22nd start, the addition of the team increases the strength of the line-up announced thus far for the 2.1 race. CSC, T-Mobile and Unibet are all ProTour squads, while Panaria are a Pro Continental team. They were joined this week by another of the same ranking, the New York-based Navigators Insurance squad of Irish professionals Ciarán Power and David O'Loughlin, as well as the South Australia.com team.

Power and O'Loughlin will be fired up to perform well on home soil and will start as protected members of the seven-man squad.

They will be joined by Hilton Clarke, Valeriy Kobzarenko, Sergey Lagutin, Phil Zajicek and the 2006 FBD Insurance Rás winner Kristian House for the Fáilte Ireland-backed event.

O'Loughlin showed his good form on Tuesday when he placed fifth in the opening stage of the Tour de Beauce in Canada. He and Power then finished in the main bunch on day two, coming home in a group sprinting for 10th, some five minutes 24 seconds behind their team-mate Glen Chadwick.

O'Loughlin dropped a place to seventh overall but remains 36 seconds behind race leader Mark Walters.

Power finished a solid 13th on stage two and is 36th overall. The 2.2 ranked race continues with a 153 kilometre road race from St-Georges to the tough Mont-Mégantic climb.

In other news, Irish MTB riders continued to gather points which will boost the odds of qualification for next year's Olympic Games. Tarja Owens was sixth in the elite women's event at the Class One Itera Cup in Moscow. Ciara McManus was 12th.

Robin Seymour also placed sixth in his race, the Elite men's contest.

WEEKEND FIXTURES

Friday-Sunday:Newry Wheelers Three-Day, stage one starts 7pm, sign on beforehand in St Mark's HS. Saturday-Sunday: Paddy Flanagan International Two-Day, stage one starts 9.30am. Saturday: Veterans' Omnium track championships, Eamonn Ceannt Park, Sundrive Road, Kimmage, starts 11am; Irish XCO NPS 4, Killaloe Limerick; Ashford Open race, Ashford (underage racing from 10am, other event at 11.30am). Sunday: John Drumm Memorial Cup, Currow, starts 2pm (Youth events at noon).