Cycling: One of the biggest races on the Irish calendar takes place this Sunday when the world-ranked Shay Elliot Memorial is fought out on the roads of Wicklow.
Regarded by riders here as one of the toughest races in Ireland, its graduation to the International calendar last year has made it the most important one-day event after the national road race championships.
The promoting Bray Wheelers cycling club have confirmed a decent line-up for the Swift Post-sponsored race, with teams from Britain, Scotland and the Isle of Man all travelling. The route will be very similar to the 2002 course until Roundwood, after which the riders will speed onwards to the traditional finish in Bray.
Missing from the field will be Irish professionals David O'Loughlin and Ciarán Power, who are unable to line out due to their teams' commitments in the Tour of Georgia. The Irish professionals are both riding well two days into the American race, with O'Loughlin best placed of his Ofoto-Lombardi squad in 22nd place overall. He is just 17 seconds off the yellow jersey of Henk Vogels, while Power is 23 seconds off his Australian team-mate's lead in 38th overall.
The 2.3-ranked race continues until Sunday, with tomorrow's most difficult stage taking the riders high up into the Appalachian Mountains.
Also racing abroad this weekend are the mountainbike riders Robin Seymour, Tarja Owens and Lewis Ferguson. The trio have travelled to Italy for the Brianza Cup which is taking place tomorrow. Seymour and Owens both picked up world ranking points in last Sunday's NPS round one in Dundonald, Belfast, when they finished first and second in their respective races, and the Athens 2004 aspirants are hoping to gather more points in Italy.
At home, Cycling Ireland's track commission will hold the first of two track evaluation meetings tomorrow. Riders hoping to get onto the team for the B world championships will take part in a number of events in the Tommy Givan stadium in Belfast.
Finally, riders will be frustrated by the news that Cycling Ireland has been forced to cancel the first two races scheduled for the Phoenix Park this season. Following long negotiations, the park authorities had agreed to permit a small number of events take place there this year but ongoing roadworks now mean that the April 29th and May 13th events can not go ahead. Racing will start after May 25th.
The Kanturk Credit Union club is now taking entries for their Senior 2 and 3 Corkman Tour and the Corkman International Underage Youth Tour, running from May 3rd-5th.
FIXTURES: Tomorrow: Cycling Ireland track evaluations, Tommy Givan Stadium, Orangefield, Belfast; John Beggs Memorial, Dromore. Races start at noon. Sunday: Shay Elliot Memorial, Bray. Race starts 10.30 from Bray Town Hall; Dundalk Cycle Traders cup race. Races start at 1 pm; IVCA 45 mile DMS, Kenstown. Starts 10 am; MTB NPS XC series round two, Ballinastoe, Roundwood. Races running from noon onwards.
