Main Men: Deignan (left) was in great shape in Argentina last week while Irvine (right) gets underway in France tomorrow, Wednesday
By Graham Healy
Following on from the season-opening GP Cycliste la Marseillaise at the weekend, the An Post–ChainReaction team will be staying in the south of France for their next race, the Étoile de Bessèges, which starts tomorrow.
New Unitedhealthcare professional Martyn Irvine is also down to start in France where he will get his career with the new team underway. He has been recruited as a lead out man for the US-based team but as a very competitive rider should also get some chances of his own in the season ahead.
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In the An Post-ChainReaction camp, veteran sprinter Niko Eeckhout has seen successful in the past in the race. He won it overall way back in 2001 and three years ago he netted a stage win. Pieter Ghyllebert also came close to victory in 2010, when he finished in third place overall.
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Eeckhout is listed amongst the starters for this year’s race, and was due to be joined on the team by both Ronan McLaughlin and Sam Bennett.
However, Bennett had also been originally listed as one of the starters in the GP Cycliste la Marseillaise but instead Sean Downey started the race. Stickybottle understands Downey will also start tomorrow rather than Bennett.
The race consists of five relatively flat stages, before finishing with a 10-kilometre time-trial on Sunday. The An Post team and Irvine’s Unitedhealthcare will have to contend with a number of World Tour teams, including Lotto-Belisol and Ag2R.
The flat nature of the race should offer Eeckhout a number of opportunities for success while it may also see Irvine being sprung into action in the closing kilometres of those stages that come down to group sprints.
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