After failing to qualify for the U23 road race at the World Championships in Florence last year, the Irish U23 team will be looking to get qualification points in the bag in the upcoming Nations Cup races. Above, Ryan Mullen’s hopes were scuppered by bad luck at the ZLM Tour in Holland 12 months ago but he and his team mates are back and hoping for more (Photo: Joyce Jackson https://www.facebook.com/#!/JoyceGhijs?fref=ts)
By Brian Canty
Cycling Ireland has named a strong Irish team for the upcoming U23 Nations Cup events in Belgium, France and Holland.
Ryan Mullen, Conor Dunne and Jack Wilson of the An Post Chainreaction team as well as Rapha-Condor JLT’s Felix English make the cut along with Belgium-based duo Conor McIlwaine and Eoin McCarthy.
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The two named reserve riders are home-based riders Cormac Clarke and Javan Nulty.
Both have been selected for the Irish development team for the Kerry Group Rás Mumhan over the Easter weekend and should any of the six on the Nations Cup team proper above get injured or ill, they’ll step into the breach.
English is a doubt for this weekend’s opener in the U23 Tour of Flanders with a wrist injury, so Nulty and Clarke are both on standby.
The Nations Cup events are crucial for this group of riders, with Ryan Mullen stressing as much last week when he told stickybottle they’re one of his big goals for 2014.
Points accrued over the three races will go directly towards qualifying places for the World Road Race Championships in Spain in late September.
Last year the U23s performed well below par at the Nations Cup, which is essentially a series of races contested by national selections. As a result, while Ireland was automatically entitled to two places in the U23 time trial at the road Worlds, we failed to qualify any slots for the U23 road race.
Last year also marked the first season with a new batch of riders, with the likes of Sean Downey, Sam Bennett and Philip Lavery all aging out of the category at the end of the 2012 season.
While there are more events to tally points towards Worlds qualification before the cut off point in mid August, next week's races will be where many countries will look to lay down a marker, meaning the competition will be intense.
The Irish riders also have a better chance of gaining points next week rather than hunting for them at races with their trade teams while competing against elite pros on the open international circuit in the months ahead.
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Team manager Brian Nugent said he’s pleased with the team and believes there’s a good mix of riders that can work together to achieve results.
“The team can all do something at different points in the three races,” he said.
“Picking the team was extremely difficult but preference was given to those riders on a European or international racing programme because they’re more accustomed to longer races.”
The programme sees the team race in Belgium this Saturday on the iconic roads of Flanders, before they travel south to France early next week to race Picardie on Wednesday. They then conclude the week in Holland at the ZLM Tour.
Last year the U23 team – which featured the same riders – endured a torrid week and they’ll be hoping for much better this time around.
In Flanders, they suffered bad luck with Dunne and Clarke the only two finishing the race.
In Picardie, Dunne was forced out because he was sick and some of the team were again hit by mechanicals when the hammer went down. Wilson and Mullen were the only finishers there.
In the ZLM Tour, Ryan Mullen was best of the Irish in 57th at over four minutes, with Dunne the only other finisher.
Some of the current Irish U23 internationals, from left: Ryan Mullen, Jack Wilson and Conor McIlwaine are named to start the upcoming Nations Cup races, with Cormac Clarke (on the far right) a reserve along with Javan Nulty.
Conor McIlwaine is currently based on Belgium and is shaping up nicely as one of our best young riders competing on the international stage (Photo: Joyce Jackson https://www.facebook.com/#!/JoyceGhijs?fref=ts)
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