Newry's Cormac Clarke (above) and DID Dunboyne's Javan Nulty (homepage photo) are part of a strong Irish team selected for Kerry Group Rás Mumhan at Easter (Photo: Toby Watson)
By Brian Canty
An Irish U23 development team will once again be entered in this year’s Kerry Group Rás Mumhan which is now just over three weeks away.
The team is comprised of Dylan Foley (Aqua Blue), Sean Hahessy (Iverk Produce Carrick Wheelers), Daniel Stewart (East Antrim CC), Javan Nulty (DID Dunboyne) and Cormac Clarke (Newry Wheelers).
It will be managed by Neil Martin, father of Garmin-SHARP professional rider Dan and himself a double Olympian and former British professional road race champion.
The five-man selection looks a very strong one with the focus very much on exposing the country’s best young riders to tough competition, while also getting them to ride as a team in some of Ireland’s showpiece events.
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Foley and Hahessy were juniors last year, with the former riding the World Road Race Championships in Florence while also featuring very prominently in many of this year’s early season races.
Of note, Foley took 2nd in the Lacey Cup and 3rd in the Cycleways Cup. He was also placed in the Traders GP in Blarney, taking 6th, and the Des Hanlon Memorial Classic, where he was 12th last weekend in Carlow.
Hahessy started the year as an A3 rider but quickly made the jump up to the A2 ranks following a win in the Newbridge GP while he was also took second in the Lacey Cup and fifth in the Traders GP in Blarney.
Like Foley, has slotted into the top tier of domestic racing effortlessly in his first season out of the juniors.
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Cormac Clarke and Daniel Stewart both rode the Kerry Group Rás Mumhan last year and were both active, and they’ll be looking to improve on that this year.
Clarke in particular is a rider whom much is expected and he’ll certainly look to show he’s capable of riding on the Nations Cup team when that swings around after Easter.
He was second to An Post Chainreaction rider Jack Wilson in last year’s National Championships in Carlingford, and beat Conor Dunne, for that silver medal.
He is one of the very strongest emerging Irish riders and will be keen to make an impression on Kerry this weekend.
Daniel Stewart was the sixth best U23 rider in the race last year overall, but seems to be coming into some good form, as evidenced by his second place in the Tour of Ards last weekend.
There, the East Antrim CC man got the better of the more established riders like Peter Hawkins (Madison Genesis), Connor McConvey (Synergy Baku), and Ronan McLaughlin (Dig Deep Coaching).
The final man on the team, Javan Nulty makes his long awaited debut in an Irish jersey. The DID Dunboyne man was 11th overall last year and deservedly gets his chance to shine.
Nulty has undoubted class on the bike and is rarely found wanting in the tough races.
He took a string of really impressive wins last year and has already opened his account for 2014 with victory in Rás Naomh Finian in Clonard three weeks ago.
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