Cycling Ireland names teams for Junior Tour, Euro Champs & Track World Champs

Matthew Doyle is just one of a very strong group of juniors included in Cycling Ireland's plans this summer. He is selected to ride for Ireland at the Junior Tour of Ireland and the Junior World Track Championships.

Cycling Ireland has named a total of 12 riders in the Irish teams that will ride the Junior Tour of Ireland and European Road Championships and form the shortlist from which an Irish team will be picked for the World Track Championships.

An announcement about the U23 team for the European Championships is imminent, though it is expected to be smaller than the junior squad.

The Junior Tour team is a very strong one, with Dylan Foley (NRPT-Standard Life), Eddie Dunbar (Kanturk O’Leary Stone), Matthew Doyle (Jonge Renners – Belgium) and Thomas Fallon (Vacansoleil) named for the premier Irish junior fixture. Mark Downey (NRPT-Standard Life) has been named as reserve for the race from July 2^nd to 7^th.

All of the riders have a lot of experience, both at home and abroad. However, Doyle has been racing at a higher standard this year in Belgium than the others, who are all racing at home. Doyle, a former Foyle CC rider, also won a race in Belgium during a stint there last year and forced his way onto the World Championships road team as a first year junior.

Against that background he should be the strongest, though Dunbar rode well during his only foreign outing of the season to date in Belgium at the start of the current campaign and has won a string of races in very convincing fashion at home.

Foley too is a very promising prospect, taking a very good overall win in the Gorey Three Day at Easter. He has also taken some one-day wins in the shape of the A3 race at the Silver Pail GP in April and the Cycleways GP A3 event in March.

Mark Downey has had a slightly slower start to the year, though he seems to be coming around nicely in his first year as a junior and took his first win of the season in the West Down GP last Saturday.

Junior team manager Frank O'Leary told stickybottle the Junior Tour team would be aiming to try to win the race overall. He said the issue of team leadership will be decided as the event unfolds.

“You can start out with very set ideas about who’ll lead, but a few days in you might find the guy you thought was strongest isn’t going as well as expected or somebody else has hit form and is flying, so we’ll see how it unfolds,” he said.

The Irish team will need to be on their toes in the Junior Tour as the race organisers once again have a very impressive line-up in place, with teams coming in from the UK and from the US.

The junior internationals will be in action again less than two weeks after the Junior Tour ends on July 7^th, at the European Road Championships in the Czech Republic.

Unusually, just one of the riders selected for the Irish team for the Junior Tour makes the three-man team for the Euros; Eddie Dunbar.

He will be joined by Danny Bruton (NRPT-Standard Life) and Ciaran Campbell (Drogheda Wheelers).

All three riders have won a series of races this year, with Dunbar in particular proving very strong, attacking early and often most races he has ridden and winning with near race-long breakaways.

His most recent victory came on Sunday in the Coachford Classic in Cork with a characteristic ride during which he spent most of the race out front alone, building his lead to three minutes by the finish.

He won the Dungarvan GP two weeks ago and the Aquablue Classic in Minane Bridge last month with a 100km solo breakaway.

Bruton, previously of DID Dunboyne, was 6^th in the National Hill Climb Championships against the elite riders last year. This season he has won a number of races including the A3 event at the Des Hanlon Memorial in Carlow in March and the A3 race at the Stamullen GP last month.

Campbell has been in great form of late, going on a winning run three weekends in succession to take the Dunsany GP two weeks ago, adding that to his wins at the Waller Cup in Bohermeen and victory in the Frank O’Rourke Memorial in Co Wexford on the previous consecutive Sundays.

With just three riders to go up against the well drilled bigger squads from countries like Holland, Belgium, Norway and France, the Irish riders will likely try and fire Bruton and Campbell up the road, while keeping Dunbar for a tilt at a result on what is an undulating course that should suit him.

With the World Junior Track Championships taking place in August in Glasgow, Cycling Ireland has decided to send its largest team of the summer there.

Dylan Foley, Matthew Doyle, Mark Downey and Thomas Fallon all make the cut as well as being in the squad for the Junior Tour. They will be joined on the panel for the Track Worlds by UK-based Jack Sadler and domestic rider Dylan O’Brien.

Sadler is a very strong sprinter with a powerful kick and won a stage in the Junior Tour last year in his first year as a junior rider. He also has a number of wins in the UK and Ireland this year, with his most recent coming just last weekend at the support race for the pro Tour Series criterium in Aberystwyth.

O’Brien has taken a string of strong placings this year and like Downey has had a slightly slower start to 2013 but has already represented Ireland very strongly in the past and is expected to make his mark on the summer before it’s out.

The team for the Track Worlds will attend a preparation camp in Belgium, spending most of their time in Ghent, between July 12^th and August 2^nd. That will be followed by a week of tapering before racing in the Worlds.

As well as taking in specific track preparation in Belgium, they will also ride some road races and before they depart for Belgium they will be taken on a week-long training camp on the track in Glasgow where the Worlds will be held.

The team is not set in stone. It is likely, though not certain, that all of those picked for the Belgium preparation camp will get a ride at the Worlds.

They will target a number of events including the team and individual pursuits, scratch race and points race.

Hayley Priestly and Rachel Kaye-Mellor form the two-member female team for the Track Worlds.