Eoin McCarthy gets his chance in a world class field to begin his tenure with the Irish Continental-ranked team An Post-Chainreaction (Joolze Dymond-An Post-CRC)
The Irish trio of Eoin McCarthy, Ryan Mullen and Conor Dunne have been named in the An Post-Chainreaction team for the opening race of the 2015 season, the Grand Prix Cycliste la Marseillaise (UCI 1.1).
The traditional curtain raiser unfolds in France tomorrow, Sunday, over 140km.
The route is an undulating one and while there are only three main climbs to be negotiated there are plenty of lumpy stretches to test the field.
Dunne and Mullen rode the race last year, when it was the first competitive outing for both in the colours of An Post-Chainreaction.
Now a year stronger and wiser, they will hope to make their mark and possibly get up the road.
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Jack Wilson, left, and Ryan Mullen in the Grand Prix Cycliste la Marseillaise last year; Wilson sits out tomorrow's race but Mullen is in action again.
However, Mullen’s main focus for the next month is the World Track Championships which unfold in Paris at the end of February.
He was 4th in the individual pursuit at the Worlds in Cali, Colombia, last year so is a realistic prospect for a medal at the imminent 2015 championships.
For McCarthy, this is his first race in the colours of An Post-Chainreaction and he will be looking to get around and to do what is asked of him.
Now an experienced campaigner, he has been a regular in the colours of the Irish U23 team in recent years and has spent the last couple of seasons in Belgium.
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The Corkman will look to get his tenure with Sean Kelly’s and Kurt Bogaerts’ outfit off to a positive start.
Dunne is a very strong rider who told stickybottle recently that his training had gone very well over the winter and he was hoping for a better season this year.
Conor Dunne, centre, on his way to a reasonable performance last year; he will be looking to make progress tomorrow.
The Irishmen will line up against a quality field featuring some of the biggest pro teams in the world including Cofidis, Ag2r-La Mondiale, FDJ.fr and Lotto-Soudal, with other strong Continental and ProContinental teams also in the mix.
The race was won last year by former An Post rider Kenneth Van Bilsen (Topsport Vlaanderen – Baloise).
He triumphed in a bunch sprint from Baptiste Plackaert (Roubaix Lille Metropole), Samuel Dumoulin (Ag2r-La Mondiale) and John Degenkolb (Giant-Shimano).
Conor Dunne was 118th last year in a large group some 10 minutes down.
Marcus Christie, who has since moved on from An Post-Chainreaction, was listed as a non-finisher.
Mullen and Jack Wilson finished the race but were in a group outside the time limit, so a tough contest is in store for the Irish tomorrow.
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