CYCLING:If Irish elite cycling is going through a bit of a renaissance at the moment then the hope is that it might somehow transfer to the Olympic stage, sooner if not later, although in the past we've seen that this hasn't been easy.

In 1980 Stephen Roche went to the Moscow Olympics as a real medal prospect, yet ended up 45th – 20 seconds behind the race winner, and there were similar ambitions for Paul Kimmage in 1984, and he finished 27th.

Then in Athens in 2004, former world junior champion Mark Scanlon was seen as an outside hope for the road race, and he dropped out, not helped by the scorching and energy-sapping heat.

What is certain is that the expectation for gold in London in the men’s road race rest firmly on the shoulders of the host nation, and either Mark Cavendish, if it comes down to sprint, or Tour de France winner Bradley Wiggins, if the climbers manage to get away somewhere in the Box Hill breakaways.

Nonetheless, Nicolas Roche is in London just a week after finishing in an extremely impressive 12th place in the recent Tour, and going very close to registering a stage win just last Friday.

Daniel Martin comes into these games on the back of a 35th-place finish in what was his debut Tour, and as a climbing specialist, will be keeping a close eye on the breakaways that should materialise around Box Hill.

Elsewhere, Martyn Irvine is a late convert to the Velodrome, but in the open and very unpredictable event that is the Omnium.

Ian O’Riordan

VERDICT- Should be competitive

Nicolas Roche and Daniel Martin have shown their qualities elsewhere in recent weeks, and while unlikely to be in the shake-up for medals they will produce respectable and competitive performances.