With Nicolas Roche (left) and Dan Martin set to miss the National Road Championships in two weeks, some of the glamour will be lost but a class field and tougher than believed course will produce a worthy champion.
Nicolas Roche and Dan Martin are to miss the National Road Championships in Carlingford, Co Louth, in a fortnight, stickybottle has learned.
While Martin’s non-participation had been rumoured for some time, the fact fellow former champion Roche will not be in Co Louth when the title is decided tomorrow fortnight is a surprise.
Martin did not ride either the road race or the time trial last year when the championships were held in Clonmel, Co Tipperary.
However, Roche (Saxo-Tinkoff) rode both events. He has made a point of always riding the championships and appears to enjoy racing in Ireland, as he has done since he was a schoolboy.
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Martin (Garmin-Sharp) last rode the title race two years ago in Monaghan when he was edged out by Matt Brammeier, then riding for HTC Highroad and now with Champion System.
He was unhappy with the course that year, believing the route that decides a national title should be a little harder.
Twelve months ago he rode his first Tour de France and was trying to recover from a crash in the fortnight before the Tour started. As a result, he decided not to travel to Clonmel. The lack of harder climbing on the course was also believed to have been a factor in his thinking.
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Many in the Irish cycling community felt he was not going to ride this year, with his participation in the Tour de France – which starts just six days after the national road title race – and dissatisfaction about the courses selected informing his decision making.
However, it now appears the six days between the Irish championships and the start of the Tour is a much bigger factor this year because the Tour de France is starting in Corsica.
The Mediterranean island will host the first three stages of the race and because getting there involves extra travel, most of the pro teams will arrive there a few days in advance. It means they will begin travelling to the race slightly earlier than normal.
Roche and Martin would obviously need to travel from Ireland back to Europe after the championships in Carlingford before then starting more travel to Corsica.
Stickybottle understands the logistics of the travelling in the week before the Tour – which starts with a 212km road stage – has been the main factor in Roche’s decision not to travel to Ireland.
However, the absence of two of Ireland's small number of heavy hitters may open the race up a little more. And with 90 metres of climbing on the circuit to be tackled 13 times, it will split and the title may go to a non sprinter.
The in-form Philip Deignan (Unitedhealthcare) could certainly make his presence felt as the lumps on the course start to hurt the riders’ legs in the latter stages, while defending champion Matt Brammeier (Champion System) will be gunning for another win to add to his three consecutive road titles.
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