Out of Limerick: Stephen Clancy will be mixing it with some of the really big names at the Tour of California for the next week.
By Brian Canty
Ireland’s Stephen Clancy will take on many of the world’s best riders including Bradley Wiggins and Peter Sagan next week when he starts the week-long Amgen Tour of California tomorrow.
The 23-year old Limerick man is part of an eight–strong Novo-Nordisk squad that will compete in the race for the second year in-a-row.
Clancy has just completed a big block of training and goes to the race in good condition.
After it he’ll stay on in the US for the Winston Salem and Philadelphia Classics before heading to Canada for the Grand Prix Cycliste de Saguenay and the Tour de Beauce.
Advertisement
He’ll finish his current block of racing at the National Road Championships in Dublin in late June.
Organisers of the 2.HC-ranked Tour of California are calling it the strongest field ever and with Wiggins and Sagan on the start-line, it’s sure to be one of the country’s marquee events of the year.
Some other riders confirmed are Alex Kristoff (Katusha) and Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data), Taylor Phinney (BMC Racing team), Rohan Dennis (BMC Racing Team), Julian Alaphilippe (Etixx-QuickStep).
Clancy is developing into a fine rider and will take to the start-line as part of a strong Novo-Nordisk squad for the Amgen Tour of California.
Related News
There are 18 men’s teams, 10 of which are World Tour with the rest being a mix of Pro-Conti and Conti squads.
The race starts in San Diego with a stage that’s likely to end in a bunch sprint before hitting some real mountains on Monday and Tuesday.
The summit finish on Gibraltar Road on the latter stage is where the race could very well be shaped.
That final ramp climbs for 12 kilometres at an average gradient of 8% and should see significant splits.
Stages four and five are likely to end in sprints again while the stage six individual time-trial (20k) should see another reshuffling of the overall standings.
The penultimate stage is another brute and takes the riders over six categorised climbs on a 175-kilometre loop of Santa Rosa in southern California.
And stage eight is the nailed-on bunch sprint finale that saw Peter Sagan snatch victory last year from the aforementioned Alaphilippe.
As well as Clancy, Matt Brammeier is also in the field as he returns to the peloton following his wedding last month.
Clancy had his moment on popular American TV breakfast show 'Good Morning San Diego' in the build-up to the race this week.
Topics
