Ever since the race became part of the world calendar in 2001, the standard of the overseas competition in the FBD Insurance RÁS has soared. As stated elsewhere in these previews, the number of Irish victories has dropped since the start of the new millennium, meaning that it is even more important than before for the home riders to prepare well for the event and to ride both aggressively and intelligently.
It is reassuring that while the standard of this year’s overseas contingent looks to be a considerable one, the level of the top Irish competitors appears to have also increased. Two groups of riders are competing on Continental level teams, while there are other Irish riders on UCI trade teams in the race.
This latter group includes Navigators professional David O’Loughlin, a talented rider from Mayo who won the Irish road race championships in 2004 and 2005. He has been released by his Continental Professional team for the duration of the FBD Insurance RÁS, and will lead a strong Grant Thornton Ireland team in the eight-day race. O’Loughlin has ridden the event on several occasions, the last such time in 2004 when he won a stage and finished third overall.
Also returning from competing abroad are two other Irish champions. National under 23 title holder Paídi O’Brien and hill climb gold medallist Roger Aiken have been competing in Belgium as part of the continental Sean Kelly – ACLVB M. Donnelly Racing Team. Aiken won the first stage of the FBD Insurance RÁS last May, while O’Brien showed promising form at the start of the month when he finished a fine twelfth in the Under 23 Liège-Bastogne-Liège Classic. He was also sixth in the Circuit de Wallonie last Sunday, and should make his presence felt in the RÁS.
Conor Murphy has also been released by his continental team for the event. He recently took third in the Shay Elliott Memorial and second in the Tour of Ulster, and has been competing this year as part of the crack Murphy and Gunn/Newlyn Group Continental squad. Although they have targeted this race as one of their main season aims, the team management have agreed to a request by Cycling Ireland to release him to the Grant Thornton Ireland squad for the FBD Insurance RÁS.
“Team Murphy and Gunn/Newlyn Group have the aim this year of trying to raise the standard of cycling here and have done that, with riders such as Conor taking several big results,” stated Murphy and Gunn/Newlyn Group chief sponsor Stephen Murphy. “He is a very talented rider and while we would have liked to have him on our team for the FBD Insurance RÁS, being selected to represent Ireland is a great honour.”
The Grant Thornton- Ireland squad is completed by Ryan Connor, who this year won a stage in the Tour of Ulster and took overall victory in the P&O Irish Sea Tour of the North. He is a good climber and proven time trialist, the Ulster rider having won the British junior title in 2003.
Tamara O’Driscoll, CEO of Cycling Ireland stated the importance of the good lineup. “We were determined to enter a strong team into the RAS this year to properly reflect the high standard of racing that Irish Cycling is currently experiencing,” she said. “We have to thank our sponsors Grant Thornton for their continued support of Irish racing, as it is with funding like this that we are continuously able to develop our sport.”
Another prominent name is that of O’Loughlin’s Navigators team-mate Ciarán Power. The double RÁS champion is returning after an operation earlier this year. In recent seasons the Waterford rider, who was a superb 13th in the Olympic road race in Athens, had been increasingly affected by a blood flow obstruction which led to numbness and a loss of power in one of his legs. That problem has now been successfully treated and he is raring to go.
“I am feeling really great now, I can’t remember the last time my legs felt this good,” he said at the end of April. “The problem seems to be totally fixed”
Power returned to racing then after an eight-month absence and immediately showed strong form, dominating the King of the Mountains classification in the Tour of Ulster. He was also fifth and sixth on stages and finished the three-day race a very respectable sixth overall. He continued to build form in the run-up to the race, taking victory in the Kelly Pharmacy GP last Sunday.
Power won the Irish tour twice in the past, first in 1998 and then again in 2002. He last competed in the FBD Insurance RÁS three years ago when he won stages into Ballina and Oldcastle and finished second in the points classification. He is likely to target another stage win this time, with his lack of racing making the overall win a tough task.
“I am going to do the race with the Tipperary - Dan Morrissey team,” he said recently. “I spoke to Frankie Campbell [Ireland team manager] and he said that maybe I could do it on the Irish team, but I didn't want the pressure of that. I want to be able to train through it, but obviously do a good Rás too so I can prove to myself, to Dan Morrissey’s and also to my Navigators Insurance team that I am going well.”
FBD Insurance RÁS organiser Dermot Dignam feels Power will make a good impact. “We are very pleased that Ciarán, a double winner of the race, is taking part once more. Although he had a long break from racing, he is clearly coming back in good form and should make an impression on the race.”
A team very much in the hunt for stage wins, and perhaps the overall victory, is the Murphy and Gunn/Newlyn Group lineup. This year they took out a Continental (third division) licence with the UCI, becoming one of just two Irish teams to do so. The change in status has coincided with a considerable jump in the number and quality of its results, with many riders performing strongly.
The team was due to be co-led by 1997 FBD Insurance RÁS winner Andrew Roche, who highlighted his good form with strong performances in the international races the team did earlier this season and then took a superb win in the Shay Elliott Memorial last month. He showed excellent form in last Sunday’s Rutland-Melton race in the UK and a win there looked possible until he crashed inside the final 200 metres. Roche broke his collarbone and has consequently been ruled out of the Irish Tour.
All is by no means lost, however. Team-mate Paul Healion has had a highly impressive year so far and providing stomach problems he’s experienced at times this year respond to the medication he has recently been prescribed, he could be one of the strongest riders in the race. The Dubliner is number one in the Irish rankings after amassing several wins, a winter spent riding road and track races in Australia helping him achieve his best-ever form.
Healion won one of the tradition pre-Rás form indicators when he came out best in the Credit Union Ras Mumhan in April, then finished third overall in the Tour of Ulster earlier this month. He was in excellent form there, taking third on stage one, second on stage two and winning stages three and four; had he not missed the move with Ray Clarke and Conor Murphy on day one, he could well have won the race. More recently he was a very strong second in the Lincoln Grand Prix in England. Could he be the dark horse for this year’s FBD Insurance RÁS?
If Healion does take yellow during the race, he can count on strong support from team-mates John O’Shea, John Dempsey, Simon Kelly and Morgan Fox. The latter is a former Irish professional who played a big part in the formation of the new Murphy and Gunn/Newlyn Group team, sitting down with main sponsor Stephen Murphy during the off season and drawing up plans for the new setup. Fox has plenty of experience, as does team manger Declan Byrne, and this may prove vital during the 2.2 ranked Irish tour.
Ireland’s second continental team is the Sean Kelly ACLVB M. Donnelly squad, which operates out of the Sean Kelly cycling academy in Merchtem. Although the team is classified as a Belgian one for this event due the fact that the majority of the five man squad are from that country, Tim Cassidy and Mark Cassidy are two Irish riders who could play a big part in the FBD Insurance RÁS.
Other squads which should play a prominent role are the Meath Myhome.ie/Cycleways.com squad and the Tipperary Dan Morrissey setup. The first of these was due to include Eugene Moriarty, who was second in the best county rider classification last year, has taken several top ten stage results in recent years and been one of the most aggressive and consistent Irish competitors in the race’s sprint finishes. Moriarty always seems to rise to the occasion when in the FBD Insurance RÁS and with the race spending time in Kerry this year, he had all the motivation he needs to finally bag a stage win. However he had a heavy crash in the Ras Mumhan, breaking his collarbone, and so his place will be taken by another good sprinter, Aidan Crowley.
Mehall Fitzgerald should also be up there in the gallops, while another previous stage winner Brian Kenneally is back in very good form this year and will play an aggressive role. The strong squad is completed by Stephen O’Sullivan, stage winner in 2000, and John Mason.
As mentioned previously, Ciarán Power will line out as part of the Tipperary Dan Morrissey setup, having been temporarily released by his Navigators professional team. The Waterford rider will be joined by Rory Wyley, Ras Mumhan stage victor Martin O’Loughlin, Tim Barry – who was sixth overall last year and best Irish county rider – and Ray Clarke. The latter is a strong track rider who has returned to his best road racing form this season, winning the Tour of Ulster earlier this month. Clarke is current Irish sprint champion, a former national road race champion and should make a good impression in the race.
It is worth noting that UCI rules regarding riders with Continental and Continental Professional teams mean that Power’s presence will rule the Tipperary Dan Morrissey squad out of the county team classification. His form is such that the squad is happy to gamble on a stage win or high overall placing.
A similar situation applies to the Dublin Usher IRC team, which was to feature Giant Asia rider Stephen Gallagher. However, the same UCI rules have led the team to take the decision that they will replace him on the team. Gallagher has been going very well this year, placing third on a stage of the Tour of Thailand and taking third overall there, then finishing an excellent second overall and second in the King of the Mountains competition at the Tour of Taiwan. He went on from those races to place 13th in the Commonwealth Games road race in March and then took more world ranked points when he was fourth in the Archer Grand Prix in April.
However his run of good form was interrupted when he had to undergo an operation to treat a hernia sustained in a crash at the Tour of Siam in January. Gallagher is returning to racing but given his enforced break and recent lack of competition, the Dublin Usher team have weighed things up and decided that the county team award is a better bet for them. Gallagher’s place will consequently be taken by Eoin Whelan.
The squad has a strong look to it, with former Irish international Tommy Evans taking up a slot for the race. The 1996 Rás winner has been in good form this season, finishing second overall in the P&O Irish Sea Tour of the North and landing some decent victories. The presence of Matthew Ward, Greg Swinand, Gary Crory and Whelan means that this squad could well be in the running for the county prize.
Amongst the many other riders to look out for include Brian Keane (Dublin Wheelers All Systems), brothers Daniel and Denis Lynch (Cork Kanturk Credit Union), Sean Lacey and Vincent Gleeson (Kerry Earl of Desmond) plus Martyn Irvine (Down Biznet Solutions), who has impressed this year and did some racing in Belgium in the run-up to the FBD Insurance RÁS.
Those scrapping it out for the county team award are Dublin Usher IRC, Meath MyHome.ie/Cycleways and Cork Team Murray Ford Developments, while Cork Team National Safety & Training, Down Biznet Solutions, Dublin Dundrum Town Centre, Dublin Wheelers All Systems, Dublin Eurocycles Eurobaby, Galway Velotec.ie, Kerry Earl of Desmond, Kildare Murphy Surveys Woodlands Kitchens, Kildare Ena Loakman Remax, Louth Cuchulainn Crystal, Meath M Donnelly and Wicklow Bray Wheelers are also eligible for the prize and will hope for a collectively strong showing during the race.
In all, there are a healthy number of Irish riders competing in the event. The foreign contingent may look stronger than ever, but so too the home representation. It should make for a fantastic eight days of racing.
