An Post's Irishmen braced for Flanders battles as season heats up

Conor McConvey and Damien Shaw and two of four Irish riders set for battle in Belgium in coming days for An Post Chainreaction (Photo: Sirotti)

David Montgomery is one of three Irish riders down to start Wednesday’s Le Samyn in Belgium, a tough 200-kilometre cobbled contest in the Flanders region.

It’s going to be the former national cyclocross champion’s road debut with the team, though he has raced in Flanders before.

Last year he was the best of the Irish in the U23 Tour of Flanders on a wretched day.

It’ll be a further step up for him tomorrow, though with another year of racing in his legs he’ll relish the considerable challenge.

Le Samyn will attract a huge field with half a dozen WorldTour squads as well as a similar amount of ProContinental and Continental squads in the field.

David Montgomery, above, and Jack Wilson will look to make an impression on the cobbles.

Connor McConvey and Jack Wilson are also in the An Post Chainreaction team’s eight-man line-up along with Calvin Watson (AUS), Jordan Stannus (AUS), Nicholas Vereecken (BEL), Emiel Wastyn (BEL) and Jasper Bovenhuis (NED).

Team manager Kurt Bogaerts is hoping Wilson can start to show the form he believes he’s capable of.

“Wilson didn’t get off to an ideal start in the GP La Marseille, by his standards,” said the team manager.

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“I’m hoping with these upcoming couple of races, that he will get up to the pace and we can begin to see some strong results from him.

“He has been working extremely hard in training, and we just hope he can reap the fruits of his labour tomorrow.”

Later in the week the team competes in Driedaagse West-Vlaanderen (2.1), a three-day race starting on Friday where national road race champion Damien Shaw will be back in action after his debut at Etoile de Bésseges.

“It is a big adjustment for him at the moment but I know he is enjoying every minute of it,” said Bogaerts of Shaw.

“For the first race, it was a bit of a shock to the system. It was all hands on deck as he was just trying to follow the wheel in front of him.

“But he is eager to learn and improve and is enjoying the different types of races he’s now able to compete in.”