The battle is intensifying for selection onto the Irish teams that will contest the U23 and junior track and road European Championships next month. Cormac Clarke - in the green of Ireland - is in the hunt for U23 selection.
Brian Canty
Cycling Ireland has identified shortlists from which U23 and junior national teams will be selected to represent Ireland at the European Road Championships in Switzerland from July 9th to 13th and European Track Championships in Portugal from July 22nd to 27th.
In the running for the U23 European Road Championships five-man team are Jack Wilson and Conor Dunne (both An Post-Chainreaction), Thomas Fallon (Willeboord Nill Vooru), Dylan Foley (Aquablue), Javan Nulty (DID Dunboyne), Sean McKenna (UCD CC), Cormac Clarke (Newry Wheelers), Felix English (Rapha Condor JLT), Eoin McCarthy (Terra Footwear) and Conor McIlwaine (Terra Footwear).
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And for the U23 track championships, the team will be selected from Fallon, Foley, Nulty, Clarke and Ryan Mullen (An Post-Chainreaction).
Mullen won two bronze medals at the meeting last year and has since finished 4th in the individual pursuit at the elite World Track Championships in Colombia earlier this year.
Some of the riders arrived in Majorca yesterday for what will be a two-week training camp under the watchful eye of Cycling Ireland high performance coach Brian Nugent.
However, the presence of some on the Cycling Ireland camp in Majorca at present while others are not there is of no significance in terms of any of the riders’ chances of gaining selection.
Separately, the juniors will spend their time training at home in the next fortnight and will then travel to the Junior Nations Cup in Germany.
Ryan Mullen won two bronze medals at the U23 European Track Championships last year and will be looking for more medals this time. Seen here on the front of the breakaway in the ZLM Tour Nations Cup race in Holland in April, where he placed 6th and qualified Ireland an U23 team for the World Road Race Championships in Spain in September (Photo: JMarc Hecquet)
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While it is clear the five-man team for the road race championships will be built around Eddie Dunbar (O’Leary Stone Kanturk), the identities of the four who will support him are not yet confirmed.
The line-up for the junior track team is also undecided at this time.
However, the composition of the teams will come from a shortlist of eight riders.
They are: Fintan Ryan, Michael O’Loughlin, Mark Downey, (all Nicolas Roche Performance Team), Stephen Shanahan (Limerick CC), Dunbar and his O’Leary Stone Kanturk team mate Dylan O’Brien, Daire Feeley (Donoman Dynamos) and Declan Mulholland (Clann Eireann).
Included in the party currently in Majorca, where track is priority, is rising junior star Josie Knight of O’Leary Stone Kanturk.
She is being assessed for national selection, though a decision on definitely sending a female team to the junior Europeans has not been taken. And in the event a team is sent, Knight is not the only rider being considered.
We’ll bring you more news on these teams when we have it.
All firmly in the running for national selection for the junior European Championships are - front to back - Dylan O'Brien, Eddie Dunbar, Mark Downey, Michael O'Loughlin and Stephen Shanahan. Seen here riding for the national development squad at the VisitNenagh.ie team time trial earlier this year (Photo: Sean Rowe)
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