CYCLING:IRISH PROFESSIONALS Nicolas Roche and Daniel Martin will move a step closer to making possible Tour de France debuts when they line out in the Dauphiné Libéré race in France on Sunday.
Their teams are finalising their rosters for the Tour and a strong showing by the Irish duo would most likely copperfasten their places in cycling’s biggest event.
Martin’s Garmin Chipotle team manger Jonathan Vaughters recently confirmed to The Irish Times the 22-year-old Martin is likely to ride the Tour, even if he is only in his second season as a pro. The Birmingham-born Irishman has impressed: last June he won the Route du Sud, while more recently he placed a close second to Alejandro Valverde in the Volta a Catalunya ProTour event.
“I’d peg him as a favourite for the Dauphiné, but there are two pretty long time trials, so that works against him a bit,” said Vaughters. Nevertheless, it’s clear he thinks the Irish road-race champion can perform strongly in the tough mountain stages.
Roche’s status for the Tour is a little less known, but he also rode well in Catalunya. He was 17th overall and netted five top-15 placings on stages. If he can show well in the Dauphiné, it is likely that he will secure his place on the Ag2r La Mondiale team for the Tour.
The ProTour race begins on Sunday with a 12.1km prologue in Nancy. Following stages to Dijon and Saint Étienne, the first big shake-up is likely to come on stage three’s 42.4km individual time trial to Valence. The next four stages are mountainous, with next Thursday’s 154km race to the summit of Mont Ventoux arguably the most vital.
In other news, young Irish MTB rider Connor McConvey has said he is looking forward to a strong summer campaign with his Felt International team. He’s had a heavy programme recently, and by the middle of May he had done more days of competition than for the whole of last season.
He said: “I’ve raced a huge amount this year and every one has either been a World Cup, a HC race or a category one event. I’ve just had a holiday for five days and I’m ready to build for the European championships in Holland, the national championships and the World Cup the week after.”
McConvey will ride a HC race in Albstadt, and then do pro kermesses to fine-tune his form for the “pan-flat” course at the European championships.
FIXTURES
Saturday: Audi Grand Prix, Ballynure, starts 11am. Christy McManus memorial, Roundwood. Starts 11am. IVCA TT championships, starts 9.15am at Enfield.
Sunday: Noel Teggart memorial, Banbridge. Starts noon.
