There are just two Irish riders from a possible five on the An Post-Chainreaction team for the Tour of Britain which starts in Liverpool on Sunday. Ryan Mullen, above, is selected alongside Jack Wilson, but surprisingly there is no place for Sean Downey (Photo: Lydia Van de Meerssche)
The An Post-Chainreaction team will have two Irish riders on the start line of the Tour of Britain when the action gets underway in Liverpool on Sunday, but one notable absentee from the line-up is Sean Downey.
Ryan Mullen and Jack Wilson are the Irish riders selected. But Downey's ride in the National Road Race Championships and Commonwealth Games, coupled with his performance in the British tour last year, have apparently been overlooked.
News that he is not on the team for what is one of the squad's biggest races of the year will come as a major surprise in racing circles.
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Downey was not contactable for comment at the time of writing.
As well as Wilson and Mullen, also selected are British riders Owain Doull and Mark McNally, Kiwi Shane Archbold and Australian Glenn O'Shea.
Mullen comes into the race in clearly some great form. His weekend at the National Road Championships in Westmeath could not have gone any better in late June as he took the U23 and senior road crowns and also the U23 time trial title.
He only missed out on the elite time trial gold because he was not eligible for an elite medal, though he was quicker in the test than any of the elite riders.
Downey, second in line, would have been an automatic selection for many for the Tour of Britain but he has not made the team (Photo: Lydia Van de Meerssche)
Since then, he has been preparing for his key goal of the season in the shape of the U23 time trial at the World Road Championships in Spain in just over two weeks time.
Mullen was 7th in that test last year as a first-year U23 rider and is looking to get into the medals on a course in Spain that should suit him better.
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He has been racing in Belgium of late but returned to his UK base last week and was 2nd in the Cycling Time Trials organisation's 10 mile championships at the weekend; clocking the third fastest time ever recorded on British roads at 17:42.
He will look to get into some breakaways at the Tour of Britain and generally use the race as training towards the Worlds, where he will ride the U23 test and road race. However, the stage 8a time trial on Sunday week in London is something he can target.
Wilson also comes into the race on the back of a very strong period.
Like Mullen and Downey, he got into the breakaway at the national championships. And while he did not medal in the main event, he was 6th over the line and took silver in the U23 contest.
The Tour of Britain could really showcase Jack Wilson to bigger teams if he can get up the road (Photo: Andréa Quémener)
Following that, he put in arguably the ride of his life in the Kreiz Breizh Elites stage race in France, where he finished 4th overall and took three top 10 placings on the four stages, including finishing 2nd on a stage.
Conor Dunne also rode very well in that race and can perhaps feel aggrieved not to be selected for the Tour of Britain. However, his omission from the team's line up for the An Post Rás in May makes his absence from the selection for Britain less surprising,
Downey on the other hand was at the centre of the team's Rás plans and was 6th overall; best of the team by a long way and the only Irishman in the top 20 overall.
Notable results since then include his silver medal at the national championships and his Commonwealth Games ride, where he would have finished 13th had he not been stopped by officials going out onto the last lap.
However, even in those races in Europe where he has not placed, he has ridden very well since the start of the season and looks to be on another level this year.
Last season he was in the line-up for the Tour of Britain and went on the attack during the race, going very close to holding the climbers' jersey. A much stronger athlete now, he was tipped to go a lot better this time around.
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