The withdrawal of the Irish U23 team from the Nations Cup is a huge set-back to its World Championships qualification chances. Above, Ryan Mullen drives the escape on his way to 6th in last year's ZLM Tour. The race, which starts in Holland tomorrow, Friday, is now a two-day with a time trial and Mullen was a hope for a top placing or even victory. It was his placing in the one-day race last year that qualified the team for the U23 road race at the World Championships in Spain (Photo: JMarc Hecquet)
By Brian Canty
Ireland will not be represented in tomorrow’s U23 Nations Cup event in the Netherlands as there are not enough fit or healthy riders to start.
Nine riders had been pre-entered for the two-day ZLM Tour a month ago but only three are in a fit state to race and UCI rules stipulate that a nation must have four riders on the start-line.
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The original nine pre-entered were: Ryan Mullen, Jack Wilson, Eoin McCarthy, Cormac Clarke, Dylan Foley, Daniel Stewart, Javan Nulty, Thomas Fallon and David Montgomery.
However, but for Nulty, Montgomery and Fallon all of the Irish are either sick or are too injured to start.
Dunbar put in a fantastic ride in France yesterday, but he was not named in the nine Irish men the team for the ZLM Tour must be drawn from under UCI rules (Photo: Stephen McMahon - Sportsfile)
It seems Eddie Dunbar, who put in a monster ride at La Cote Picarde yesterday, was not among those pre-entered; a disastrous oversight in hindsight but one that could not have been predicted by Cycling Ireland.
It means he cannot be drafted in, even to complete a few kilometres of stage 1, and enable Ireland field four riders and start the race.
The news comes as a huge blow to Cycling Ireland. It saw this race as a chance to score vital points that would go towards securing qualification for the UCI World Road Race Championships in Richmond, Virginia, later in the year.
Ryan Mullen will be particularly disappointed as he finished sixth in ZLM last year and a team of strong rouleurs had been selected to work for him tomorrow.
The race for Ireland would have involved an opening road stage of 122km followed by a 24.8km TT later in the day, which would have suited Mullen. The final stage is on Saturday and is a 177km road race.
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Montgomery on his way to the best result for Ireland at the U23 Tour of Flanders last weekend (Photo: Joe Duffy)
An Post Chainreaction man Mullen told stickybottle last week he felt a top 10 result was possible, while he also stressed the importance of a good ride.
Dylan Foley withdrew from the team sick a couple of weeks ago so has not raced any Nations Cup event this week, while McCarthy and Wilson crashed out of the Tour of Flanders and yesterday’s Le Cote de Picardie, respectively.
Clarke and Stewart are both sick.
National federations can only pre-enter nine riders for each event and such a luckless situation could hardly have been forecast four weeks ago when the selections for the various races were made.
Wilson on his way to finishing in Flanders but he crashed in the final in France yesterday and looks set for a lengthy lay-off with broken bones (Photo: Joe Duffy)
Meanwhile, Wilson is set to be out of action for a number of weeks after it was confirmed he broke his collar bone and scaphoid bone in his wrist in a crash in Picarde yesterday.
While the collar bone usually heals up quickly and riders can train within days of breaking it, the broken scaphoid makes matters more complicated and will rule him out of the An Post Rás in a month.
Mullen’s injuries from last Saturday’s crash in the Tour of Flanders are not as serious.
He has an inflamed tendon in his knee from that spill and has been told to rest. He should be back training next week, however.
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