Roche leads strong Irish team

CYCLING:Twelve days remain until the start of the Tour of Ireland and the country's two ProTour riders, Nicolas Roche and Philip Deignan, have been confirmed for what is a very solid-looking national selection.

Crédit Agricole rider Roche finished fifth in the Polynormande race last weekend and appears to be in good form following a month's training at home in Juan les Pins, near Nice. He finished the Tour of Italy in June and after placing first and fourth respectively in the Irish time trial and road race championships, he took a break from racing to hopefully rebuild for a strong second half of the season.

Deignan missed the early part of the year due to injury but has a solid block of racing ahead of him. He was 59th in the Polynormande, coming home as part of the main bunch, and today will start the nine-day Tour of Germany.

Roche and Deignan will be joined on the Tour of Ireland by Paul Griffin, Derek Burke, Martyn Irvine, Dermot Nally and Brian Kenneally.

Griffin has been competing with the Giant Asia team again this season and has a decent programme of racing behind him. He was sixth in the Tour of East Java earlier this year, as well as 8th in the Jelajah Malaysia and 9th in the Tour de Taiwan.

MyHome.ie/BDBC rider Brian Kenneally won two stages of the FBD Insurance Rás, while Martyn Irvine (Ards CC) was second in the Under 23 road race and third in the under 23 time trial championships. He, Nally and Burke (Murphy and Gunn/Newlyn Group/M. Donnelly Seán Kelly) are likely to play a supporting role to Roche and Deignan.

The national track championships will take place in the Eamonn Ceannt Park, Kimmage, this weekend. There will be four events in all, with the sprint and pursuit events taking place tomorrow. On Sunday, there will be a 500 metre time trial for juniors and women and a 1 km TT for senior men and tandem pairs. The championship concludes with a programme of scratch races.

For more informantion call Will Byrne on 086 8047839.

FIXTURES: Today: Lurgan Criterium, starts 7 pm; Mooney Cup, Dunmore, Co Galway - Cancelled. Saturday: Kilnaleck Festival race, starts 6.30 pm. Saturday-Sunday: National track championships, Eamonn Ceannt Park. Racing starts 11 am each day; Ballinrobe two- day. Sign on from 1 pm on Saturday. Sunday: Northern Ireland 80 km TT championships; contact Anthony Mitchell on 048 91817396; Tour of Armagh, starts Craigavon Watersport centre, noon.