McConvey on the cobbles at Zellik-Galmaarden yesterday, Sunday (Photo: www.atevh.be)
Mark McNally’s podium finish at the Zellik-Galmaarden (1.2) in Belgium yesterday, coupled with Gediminas Bagdonas’ good form of late and the higher number of Irish riders on the An Post-Sean Kelly this year all present team management with difficult choices ahead of next month’s An Post Rás.
The Irish eight-day is a vital fixture for the Irish-Belgian outfit; one that it wants to win again this year and will need to send its best team to in order to secure that victory.
It means that for some of the five Irish riders on the team roster in 2012 there spells disappointed ahead in the shape of non selection for the Rás.
Last year Connor McConvey was effectively taking a break from high level racing so his selection for the Rás did not arise.
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That left the team with just four other Irish riders in the mix to be picked: Mark Cassidy, Sam Bennett, Philip Lavery and Ronan McLaughlin.
Lavery had been ill in the first months of the year and with his early season wrecked, the Rás was not an option for him.
This left the team free to pick all of its available Irish riders – Cassidy, Bennett and McLaughlin – to travel to Ireland with McNally and eventual winner Bagdonas. It meant none of the Irish were left disappointed.
This year however things are not so neat.
At least one and maybe even two of the Irish riders are at risk of not making the team for the biggest home race of the year.
How it might play out
McNally was third in the Zellick-Galmaarden in Belgium yesterday, after he and Bagdonas got into the race-winning move. The 174km route saw the riders take in the Bosberg three times and the Muur twice, underlining the quality of McNally’s podium finish and Bagdonas’ fifth place.
Both – along with Niko Eeckhout - have been the most prolific riders on the team in the past couple of seasons and their current form is not in question.
Once they are fit and the An Post-Sean Kelly team decides to send its strongest selection to the Rás, theirs will be the first two names on the team sheet.
This leaves three remaining places on the Rás team, with up to five Irish riders in the hunt to fill them.
Mark Cassidy is a former Rás stage winner and wore the yellow jersey in the race. However, his racing programme has not been as full in recent months compared with the same period last year.
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It is not clear if he has aspirations to ride the Rás this year.
That leaves Bennett, McConvey, McLaughlin and Sean Downey all still in the mix.
Assuming the remaining three places on the Rás team will all go to Irish riders rather than some of the foreign riders with An Post-Sean Kelly, at least one of that Irish quartet looks set for some bad news.
Bennett and McConvey had been ill for extended periods in the first months of the season. However, they have resumed full racing again and both are very strong contenders to be picked for the Rás this year.
Bennett won a stage in 2009 and was also instrumental last year in helping Bagdonas keep his yellow jersey on the stage into Tramore.
McConvey was fourth on GC during his debut in the race in 2010 and also took the U23 classification. Like Bennett, he is a young rider who seems to have massive unfulfilled potential. Crucially, he is a good climber; a talent that will be needed on the Donegal stages this year.
Moving on to Downey and McLaughlin, the reasons to pick them for the Rás this year are equally as compelling.
Downey was 11th in the race on GC last year when riding on the Ireland team. Since then he has left his French club and joined An Post-Sean Kelly, enjoying what appears to be a seamless transition into racing at a higher level in Belgium.
The last fortnight has brought bad luck in the shape of a fractured elbow, though he has continued to race and it would appear he has plenty of time to get that injury right long before the Rás.
McLaughlin has been with the team since the outset and has become a very strong rider racing on the Continent in recent years; always consistently holding his own in tough races against top competition. Given his experience and firepower; he is a rider who would prove an invaluable asset to the team in protecting a yellow jersey in the Rás, while he is also well capable of a stage win himself.
That cursory glance at the capabilities of each of the four underlines the selection headache now facing team management.
The issue will become even more acute if the team decides to send to the Rás a rider like its emerging Belgian star Kenneth Van Bilsen. He won the U23 Tour of Flanders last Saturday week and last Saturday was third in the ZLM Tour in Holland, which is part of the prestigious U23 Nations Cup competition.
If he were picked for the Rás alongside Bagdonas and McNally, that would leave only two places to be filled by four Irish riders; though the young Belgian will more likely line out in the Tour of Belgium, which clashes with the Rás.
Whatever the permutations; tough decisions and interesting times ahead……
Zellik-Galmaarden Results
1 Kevin Thome (Wallonie-Bruxelles) 4:12:20
2 Wesley Kreder (Rabobank Continental)
3 Mark McNally (An Post-Sean Kelly)
4 Dylan Vanbaarle (Rabobank Continental)
5 Gediminas Bagdonas (An Post-Sean Kelly) same time
31. Niels Wytinck (An Post-Sean Kelly) @1:19
97. Connor McConvey (An Post-Sean Kelly) @2:11
105. Ronan McLaughlin (An Post-Sean Kelly) same
DNF Scott Law (An Post-Sean Kelly)
DNF Joren Segers (An Post-Sean Kelly)
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