US and British teams for Tour of Ireland

CYCLING:With the Tour of Ireland starting two months from today, the organisers have announced the participation of two more teams for the five-day, 2.1 ranked event.

US Professional Continental team Slipstream and Rás regulars Recycling.co.uk will join ProTour teams CSC, T-Mobile and Unibet.com plus the Panaria, Navigators and South Australia.com squads.

"We have got two interesting teams from different parts of the world that add another dimension to the race," said event organiser Alan Rushton. "Team Slipstream is a new US-based pro continental team who are just starting to come to the fore. The team had its first UCI stage win last week in the Tour de Beauce in Canada when Ian MacGregor won the stage into Quebec and former World Under-23 time trial champion Danny Pate was third overall."

Team Slipstream is managed by former professional Jonathan Vaughters, who in the past was part of Lance Armstrong's winning Tour de France line-up.

Double Rás winner and former world track champion Chris Newton will head the Recycling.co.uk charge. The squad is managed by former UK pro John Herety.

"I rode in the Nissan Classic years ago," he said, referring to the current Tour of Ireland's predecessor. "The team will enjoy the race immensely, especially the stage into Cork where they are scheduled to go up St Patrick's Hill twice."The Tour of Ireland runs from August 22nd to 26th and is backed mainly by Fáilte Ireland.

In other news, the Irish cross-country MTB squad continued their campaign for Olympic qualification when they rode strongly in Sunday's Class 1-ranked Velomarket CSKA race near Moscow.

Multiple Irish champion Robin Seymour was seventh out of 58 starters. Niall Davis was 10th, showing his promise, while Conor McConvey did not finish after unfortunately puncturing on the final lap.

Tarja Owens and Ciara McManus performed well in the women's race, placing eighth and 13th respectively. Meanwhile, talented young rider Ben Reid finished an excellent 11th in the recent downhill World Cup held in Champéry.

Finally, some details about upcoming events. The 60 start places for the National Critierum championships are almost filled. Riders who are interested in taking part in the July 6th event in Killarney should call John Blackwell on 087 9057771.

The National Youth Track championships take place in Sundrive Park this weekend, while competitors for the upcoming National Road Race championships have one of their final big tests in the Rás Connachta three-day from Friday until Sunday.

Next Wednesday the annual Stephen Roche GP will be held near Dundrum. For more details contact Dave Tansey on 087 9696587.