CYCLING: Mark Scanlon, the Ag2r rider, continued in the same vein of form which carried him to an excellent sixth in last Sunday's GP Ouest France when he placed eighth on the second stage of the Tour du Poitou Charentes this week.
The first-year professional went clear in an 11-man breakaway during the 178-kilometre stage to Bressuire and sprinted home to take a good placing in the 2.3-ranked event, finishing in a small group just over a minute behind Robert Sassone of the Cofidis team and Bogdan Bondariew of the CCC-Polsat squad.
Since returning from a mid-season break in July, the Irish road-race champion has impressed greatly. He won a stage and took fifth overall in the prestigious Tour of Denmark earlier this month, and is now close to breaking into the world's top 200 riders, the best such ranking since the days of Seán Kelly and Stephen Roche.
Meanwhile, mountainbike riders Robin Seymour and Jenny McCauley will follow on from their European championship rides last weekend when they take part in the world marathon cross-country championships in Switzerland this Sunday.
They were 42nd and 39th, respectively, last weekend in their races and will hope to add more world ranking points to their total.
Richie McCauley will also take part but missing from the team will be Tarja Owens, who crashed and cracked her collarbone last weekend. She will also miss next weekend's regular-distance world championships and so unfortunately has a much tougher task on hand in her efforts to reach the qualification standard for Athens 2004.
At home the big events this weekend are the under-23 and junior national championships in Dunlavin on Sunday. Ireland's overseas based Espoir riders are expected to travel back for what should be a hard-fought contest, while the junior race will see the country's top young cyclists such as Theo Hardwick and Barry Woods slug it out on the undulating course. Also hoping for success is Mark Cassidy, who finished an excellent third in the Junior Tour of Wales last weekend and is clearly in fine form.
In France, the tired but triumphant Blazing Saddles team should today complete their Tour du Tour de France, a six-day fundraising event which sees them cover some of the toughest stages of this year's centenary race. Regarded by many as their hardest expedition yet, the gruelling trip is being led by former world number one Seán Kelly and is raising valuable funds for the NCBI.
FIXTURES
Friday 29th - Saturday 30th: Rás Team Maoiláin two-day, Balscadden. Open to third category riders, stage one starts at 6.30 p.m. Sunday 31st: National under-23 and junior road race championships, Dunlavin. Starts 11 a.m. IVCA 42-mile DMS, Clane. Starts 10 a.m.
