Cycling World Championships: After David Millar's victory in the elite time trials yesterday, the focus turns to road races at the world road championships in Hamilton, Canada. The next three days will see the world's best riders fight it out for the distinctive rainbow jersey.
Today sees two races take place, the 74-kilometre junior women's event and the 174 kilometre under-23 race. Ireland field three riders in the latter contest, namely Philip Deignan, Denis Lynch and Nicolas Roche.
While the Irish under-23 champion Lynch is the oldest and most experienced on the team, Deignan is arguably the best bet for a good Irish performance. The hilly course will be to his liking and his recent form suggests he is in promising shape. He was a fine seventh in a pre-worlds warm-up event on Sunday, riding strongly on the difficult course of the Nella/Cramaro World Cycling Grand Prix in Ontario.
Tomorrow the quartet of Theo Hardwick, Barry Woods, Paul Brady and Mark Cassidy compete in the junior event, while rower-turned-rider Sinead Jennings lines out in the women's race.
Sunday, however, will be the most eagerly-awaited contest as the world's top professionals clash in the 260-kilometre elite men's road race. Ireland's up and coming pro, Mark Scanlon, is making his first appearance in the elite championship and this will make it all the more interesting.
The 42 ascents of the tough Niagara Escarpment should make this the toughest championship in many years, and it is possible only a small number of riders will finish. Should Scanlon ride well on Sunday, this would be a further boost to the talented Sligoman's growing confidence.
Millar's victory yesterday erased the ghost of his narrow defeat in Lisbon two years ago when he finally became world time trial champion. The Scottish rider stormed to victory in the difficult 41.6-kilometre test, setting a searing pace and eventually finishing with a one minute and twenty-five second margin over Michael Rogers of Australia. German rider Uwe Peschel was just over half a second further back in third.
Irish rider David McCann rode above expectations finishing 27th of 44 starters. He was three minutes and 42 seconds off the time set by Millar.
ELITE TIME TRIAL: 1 D Millar (Brit) 41.6 kilometres in 51 minutes 17.29 secs; 2, M Rogers (Aust) at 1 min 25.09 secs; 3, U Peschel (Ger) at 1 min 25.65 secs; 4, M Rich (Ger) at 1 min 35.7 secs; 5, I Nozal (Spn) at 1 min 39.5 secs; 6, D Frigo (Ita) at 1 min 51.5 secs Irish: 27, D. McCann, at 3 mins 41.5
