Dan Martin is in the form of his life at the moment and has opted to skip the national road race championships to keep his powder dry for the Tour de France which starts six days later. Sam Bennett has opted to do the same but Philip Deignan's reasons are not as apparent.
By Brian Canty
It has been confirmed that neither Philip Deignan (Team Sky), Dan Martin (Etixx-QuickStep) nor Sam Bennett (Bora-Argon 18) will ride next weekend’s National Road Championships.
The in-form Martin and fastman Bennett will ride the Tour de France which starts less than a week after the men's road race in Kilcullen next Sunday.
The risk of illness, injury or crashing too close to the event means they will not make the trip to Ireland for the showpiece event of the year.
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They are both in superb condition at the moment and will go to the Tour optimistic of chasing stage wins and possibly the overall in Martin's case.
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Like Dan Martin, Sam Bennett goes into the Tour de France a real prospect for stage victory and has opted to keep his powder dry by skipped the national championships (Photo: Sirotti)
Deignan’s reasoning is less as he is not going to the Tour, though stickybottle understands that the change of course from Wicklow to Kilcullen was a factor.
Attempts to contact him were unsuccessful.
It’s not all bad news as Nicolas Roche (Team Sky), Matt Brammeier (Dimension Data) and Ryan Mullen (Cannondale) are all making the journey, though only Mullen and Roche of that trio are doing both the road race and the time-trial.
Brammeier will instead focus entirely on the road race which he has already won four times while Mullen and Roche will be chasing title number two.
Conor Dunne (JLT-Condor Cycles) is a confirmed starter also as are Connor McConvey and defending champion Damien Shaw (both An Post Chain Reaction) while Stephen Clancy (Novo Nordisk) is another whose name is on the start-list.
