Irish teams named for Junior Tour and European Track Champs

Simon Tuomey, in the gray of Giant Cork, and Darragh O'Mahony, just behind in the red of Team Munster, have both been selected on the new-look Irish team for the Junior Tour of Ireland (Photo: John Coleman – Dc Images)

By Brian Canty

Cycling Ireland has named a new-look four-man national team to take part in the Junior Tour of Ireland which commences next Tuesday in Ennis, Co Clare.

The six-day event clashes with the junior and U23 European Track Championships in Athens, Greece, meaning some of the country’s best juniors will not be able to line out in the domestic showpiece.

The unfortunate timing has opened the door for Simon Tuomey (Cork Giant), Jake Gray (NRPT-Magnet.ie), Marc Heaney (Carn Wheelers) and Darragh O’Mahony (O’Leary’s Stone Kanturk CC).

However, they have all been in great form of late and were in the mix for being picked irrespective of who was available to ride.

The selected quartet will be managed by ex-professional, multiple national champion and three-time Olympian David McCann.

Gray has been in superb form of late and was impossible to ignore.

He won the Newry Three-Day last weekend after a gutsy ride for a first-year junior while Heaney has taken a couple of very tasty wins up North this year, the most recent of which was just last weekend.

Javan Nulty, leading, looks set to be part of the U23 team pursuit line-up at the Europeans in Athens next week (Photo: Guy Swarbrick)

Tuomey has spent time training and racing in Majorca with the Irish squad of late and took a road race win there just a few weeks ago.

O’Mahony has ridden very well since the start of the year; his win against the senior riders in the Munster Road Race Championships last weekend his latest really strong ride.

Missing from the Junior Tour will be Michael O’Loughlin, Declan Mulholland, Adam Stenson and Cathal Clarke as they have all been selected for track duty in Athens.

They will remain training in Majorca in coming days ahead of the championships starting next Tuesday in Greece.

Autumn Collins and Ciara Doogan have also been selected for the team; both having really emerged in the last couple of seasons.

Collins and Doogan, along with the other junior riders, are novices on the track at this level so anything they can take away from the championships will be a bonus.

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O’Loughlin has ridden extremely well on the world stage; winning a Nations Cup TT this year and finishing 2nd overall on general classification in the same race. He was also 8th in the TT at the World Road Championships last year.

However, it would perhaps be heaping unnecessary expectation and pressure on his shoulders to assume he can repeat those performances at will, especially since those significant results have come on the road rather than on the track, which is a completely different proposition.

The U23 team for the same European Track Championships is made up of older and more experienced riders in Cormac Clarke, Thomas Fallon, Mark Downey, Javan Nulty, Fintan Ryan, Sean Grimes and Eoin Mullen.

They will be spread across all events, with Mullen the man for the sprints.

Downey will probably take in the points race, given he medalled in the junior event last year, while the team pursuit squad will most likely be Nulty, Clarke, Fallon and one other.

Josie Knight is the sole U23 female selected and having won a silver in the junior pursuit at these championships last year she will be one to watch.