Schleck brothers' appearance a boost for

CYCLING/Tour of Ireland:In a major plus for the new Tour of Ireland, the highly promising Schleck brothers, Andy and Fränk, were yesterday confirmed for the five-day race, which gets under way in Kilkenny on Wednesday.

Andy Schleck highlighted his huge ability in June when he finished second overall in his first Grand Tour, the Giro d'Italia. He was clear winner of the best young rider classification and is regarded by many experts in the sport as a future winner of the Tour de France.

Brother Fränk is 27 but is also being talked about as someone who could win cycling's top event. Last season he won the Amstel Gold Classic, took the Alpe d'Huez stage at the Tour de France and finished 11th overall in Paris. This year he won a mountain stage in the Tour of Switzerland and was third in Liège - Bastogne - Liège.

The riders will be joint leaders of the CSC team which, despite the presence of other big squads in the race such as T-Mobile and Unibet, is likely to be the strongest.

"It's a tremendous boost for the Tour of Ireland to have Andy and Fränk Schleck leading the world's number one ranked team at the event," said Tour of Ireland project director Darach McQuaid yesterday. "These Luxembourger brothers will add an element of dynamism to the event with their attacking style of racing."

Meanwhile, Irish riders have been showing good form in advance of the event. Nicolas Roche was seventh, 16th and 16th on stages of the Tour de l'Ain in France this week, finally finishing 27th overall. Stephen Gallagher was one place further back, while his Murphy and Gunn/Newlyn Group/M Donnelly Seán Kelly team-mates Mark Cassidy and Paidi O'Brien were 63rd and 66th respectively.

Like Roche, Philip Deignan will also lead the Ireland team and he is showing solid condition in the more difficult Tour of Germany. He is 63rd of 167 riders heading into today's time-trial stage of the ProTour event.

Elsewhere, Siobhan Dervan (Lotto Belisol) is performing strongly in the eight-day Route de France Féminine, one of two races which lay claim to being the women's equivalent of the Tour de France. She is 24th overall, four minutes 27 seconds behind leader Amber Neben (US National Team).

Finally, the Irish track championships took place last weekend. With Saturday rained off, all four events were held on Sunday. Kieran Leahy (Cycling Pursuits) beat Keith Meghen (WORC) to win the men's pursuit while Kate Rudd (MyHome.ie/BDBC) got the better of Joanne Hickey (Usher IRC) in the women's event. This started a clean sweep for Rudd who, remarkably, also won the pursuit, the 500-metre time trial and the scratch race.

Brian Conway (IMBRC) took the men's pursuit, Paul Doyle (Sorrento CC) won the one kilometre TT and Will Byrne (Murphy Surveyors) took gold in the scratch race. Stuart Henry (North Down) triumphed in the junior scratch event.

WEEKEND FIXTURES

SATURDAY:Interprovincial youth track league, Eamonn Ceannt Park, starts 11am. West Down GP, Katesbridge, starts 11am. Alo Donegan 16km TT, Stradbally Road, Portlaoise, sign on closes 10.30am.

SUNDAY:Brendan Campbell Memorial, Donore, starts 1.45 (youth races at noon). Karl McCarthy Memorial, Glounchane, starts 1pm. Billy Stewart Cup, Derrymacash, Lurgan, starts 1pm.