A large Irish team is set to contest the road and track events at the junior and U23 European Championships in Portugal, getting underway with the road events next Thursday.
On that opening day of competition, Conal Scully (Carlow RCC) and Liam O'Brien (Fermoy CC) will be first into action for Ireland as they have been selected to ride the 22km junior men's TT in Anadia.
Later on the same day, Darren Rafferty (Hagens Berman Axeon) and Kevin McCambridge (Trinity Racing) - gold and silver medal winners in the U23 TT at the nationals last week - will ride the U23 22km race against the clock.
As they are such strong riders it will be very interesting to see how they perform against the best in Europe. McCambridge recently won the final stage at Rás Tailteann while Rafferty won U23 Strade Bianche di Romagna earlier this year.
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Two days later, on Saturday, July 9th,Erin Creighton (McConvey Cycles) and Aoife O’Brien (Torelli-Assure-Cayman Islands-Scimitar), will represent Ireland in the 83.1km junior women’s race race.
That afternoon, a six-rider men's team will ride the junior road race; doing six laps of the same course as the women for a total race distance of 125.9km.
Once again, TT riders Scully and O'Brien are in what is a very strong selection that also includes Niall McLoughlin (Westport Covey Wheelers Cycling Club), Patrick O’Loughlin (Panduit Carrick Wheelers) and Adam Gilsenan (Club Ciclistico Canturino).
Sam Bolger of Killarney Cycling Club, whose name has been buzzing on the grapevine for a while now, gets a deserved first call up to international level and is also in the junior road race team.
There's no rest for the Irish camp in Portugal as the U23 women's and U23 men's races conclude the European Road Championships on Sunday week, July 10th.
On Sunday morning Caoimhe O’Brien (Torelli-Assure-Cayman Islands-Scimitar) will be the sole Irish rider in the 104.5km U23 women's road race. She, thankfully, walked away from a potentially nasty crash on the finish line of the women's road race at the nationals last week, as she finished 4th, and is fit and ready for Europeans action.
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Later on Sunday, Rafferty and McCambridge are back in the green of Ireland for the U23 men's road race where they will be among a really strong six-man team for the 147.3km event.
Dean Harvey (Spellman-Dublin Port), who won U23 road race gold at the nationals last weekend, is also in the team as is medal prospect Archie Ryan (Jumbo-Visma Development Team).
Also in that line-up - which is notable for its strength in depth - is Rás stage winner and 3rd place GC finisher Adam Ward (Team SmartDry Girona Cycling Club) as well as Odhran Doogan - the Team Caldwell Cycles man making a splash this year with a Rás Mumhan stage win and 2nd place on a Rás stage.
Just four days after the road Europeans conclude, the track racing gets underway to decide the 2022 European championships at junior and U23 level.
The Irish junior and U23 team for the track championships, also in Anadia, is a small one but is still strong and carries genuine medal hopes into the racing.
Aoife O’Brien, Erin Creighton, Patrick O’Loughlin and Niall McLoughlin will stay on in Portugal for the track title races and that foursome will be joined by the Lara Gillespie; the big name UCD Cycling Club rider now back on track after a period of injury.
Cycling Ireland said all five riders have been entered into five track events; the elimination race, individual pursuit, omnium, points race and scratch race. However, decisions on which riders will ride what specific events will be made closer to the time.
Cycling Ireland’s new high performance director, Iain Dyer, offered his congratulations to all the junior and U23 riders selected, saying these road and track Europeans were important for Ireland.
"Being packaged up as back to back events by the UEC means this is our largest challenge of the year in terms of team sizes and logistics," he said of the road and track Europeans.
"But it’s a great opportunity for our young aspiring riders to show what they can do on the bigger stage. I’m looking forward to see how we perform.”
