Mark Downey, above, and James Curry have secured financial support from the Emerald Fund for the coming season.
The Emerald Fund established 18 months ago to assist young emerging riders has revealed it will financially support two riders this year.
Mark Downey and James Curry, both former Banbridge CC men riding in France this year, will be assisted by the Emerald Fund through the coming campaign.
“We're delighted to be able to announce that for 2017 the Emerald Fund will be supporting two riders as they continue on their path to being Ireland's next generation of professionals,” the fund said in a statement.
Downey will be based in Etupes in France racing in the colours on CC Etupes.
At the end of last year took gold at the UCI World Cup in the points race, an incredible achievement.
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He has also won silver medals in the points race at junior and U23 level at the European Track Championships, even though he is regarded mainly as a road rider.
Curry is not yet as established as Downey but once exposed to harder racing abroad he has the potential to really shine.
He is a former junior cyclocross and MTB champion while he’s also done very well on the road, winning the final stage and the overall at Rás Dun na nGall last year.
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Curry has represented Ireland off-road but he is going to France this year to focus on the road.
He was later selected to ride on the Cycling Ulster team for the UCI-ranked Beaumont Trophy this year and rode very well in service of Chris McGlinchey (Chain Reaction Cycles).
A very strong climber, he rode the MTB World Championships for Ireland at the start of last year yet is also a talented criterium rider.
In 2016 the Emerald Fund assisted a larger number of riders, with a total of eight receiving back.
However, it recently announced the criteria that riders had to satisfy before being funded had been changed.
It made it harder to secure the financial support and signalled a narrowing of the focus to support riders who had already established themselves abroad.
For example, the fund was limited to road riders only and applications were only accepted from U23 riders, or those who had aged out of that category but had already been funded last year.
The criteria also stipulates those who secure funding must already have a team for next year and must be based abroad for the season.
It was unclear whether the smaller number of riders meant additional assistance for those who are being invested in.
Curry and Downey were among the eight riders backed by the Emerald Fund last year. The other six were: Caimin Muldoon (Aqua Blue), David McCarthy (JLT Condor), Simon Tuomey (Cork Giant), Darragh O’Mahony (Kanturk CC), Ciara Doogan (UCD CC) and Stephen Shanahan (Asea Wheelworx).
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