National champion Matt Brammeier would have been a favourite for overall and stage honours at the An Post Rás but chicken pox has ruled him out. Seen here leading an escape group wearing the red jersey of king of the mountains at the Tour de Langkawi in March.
Having both moved to the Synergy Baku squad in the off season, national road race champion Matt Brammeier and the man he beat for the Irish title last summer, Philip Lavery were expected to make a return to the An Post Rás this year.
However, the David McQuaid-run team has reported that both are ill and are not in a position to take their places in the starting line-up of the eight-day race when it rolls out of Dunboyne, Co Meath, on Sunday.
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Lavery is recovering from an infection and has run out of time to be fit for the testing national tour, while Brammeier has been hit by a dose of chicken pox.
Their absence is a shame, with the participation of the national champion always bringing something extra to the event and with Lavery always willing and able to animate proceedings and generally have his say.
However, the third Irish man in the Azerbaijani-backed team, Belfast’s Connor McConvey is hopeful he can challenge for the yellow jersey next week.
The 25-year-old has had a slow start to the season, but the team appears to believe he is coming good at the right time and will be in with a chance of going one better than his second overall to UK-based Polish rider Marcin Bialoblocki last year.
Connor McConvey in Rás action last year. He was 2nd overall and generally has an excellent record in aiming for GC in the race, though the big win has eluded him so far (Photo: Stevie McKenna)
McConvey will have for company four foreign riders in the Synergy Baku Rás line-up in the shape of Germans Christoph Schweizer and Daniel Klemme along with Austrian duo Markus Eibegger and Jan Sokol.
Schweizer won a stage in the 2013 Tour of Azerbaijan and was second this year on a stage of the Tour of Taiwan. Klemme clocked up a stage win in the Tour of China last season. Eibegger won a stage in the recent Tour de Bretagne and Sokol was second and third on stages of the Mzansi Tour in South Africa this year.
McQuaid's outfit is funded by Azerbaijan with a view to qualifying its riders for the 2016 Olympics and generally developing its best cyclists. It took two stages in the Rás last year in its first season.
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McQuaid said while there will only be one Irish rider out of a possible three in the Rás team, he feels McConvey can really make an impact.
“Connor has got himself sorted and is punching out some pretty impressive numbers in training,” he said.
“Eibegger had bad luck in Azerbaijan, which was his season goal, puncturing at a crucial moment and then losing out when no neutral service was near him.
“He was due a rest and some time with the family, but credit to him, he is helping the team out by going to Ireland for a week. I fully believe he is capable of a stage win if you look at this year's route.”
McQuaid added Schweizer, Klemme and Sokol are all sprinters and while the tough route may test them, they will seize the opportunity on flatter stages.
“They all missed out on the Azerbaijan selection and they are hungry and motivated to prove something,” he said, having in recent weeks strongly criticised the team's performance in the first months of the current campaign.
If McConvey were to get into yellow or go close to it, he would have some strong men to call on.
He has an impressive history in the event, netting fourth overall in 2010, seventh in 2012 and then clocking up three top five stage finishes last year plus second overall.
He finished deadlocked on time with the popular and tough Bialoblocki, who took the general classification victory by virtue of better stage placings.
A man who likes to get up the road early and keep driving, Philip Lavery could have contributed greatly to the action during the An Post Rás despite combining competing with working this season. However, he has not had time to recover from an infection and so is out of next week's race. Seen here in a breakaway in the Mzansi Tour in South Africa earlier this year.
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