CYCLING: Despite his injury-prompted withdrawal from the Tour of Poland this week, Irish professional Mark Scanlon will be able to continue with the rest of his late-season programme as planned.
The highly promising young pro was lying fourth overall in the Polish race when he crashed at the end of the second stage, suffering a broken nose when hit by a competitor's bike.
Scanlon has been in excellent form in recent weeks and expects to be able to continue building towards a probable World Championship ride in early October. "My nose is not too bad; it doesn't need surgery or anything. I just didn't want to take a chance with it, so the team thought it was best not to continue in Poland," said Scanlon yesterday. He will return to racing in the GP D'Isbergues next Sunday.
Fellow professional Ciarán Power has one of his biggest assignments of the year this Sunday when he lines out alongside Tour de France stars Lance Armstrong and Alexandre Vinokourov, plus Tour of Italy winners Gilberto Simoni and Stefano Garzelli in the T Mobile International, formerly the San Francisco GP. Power is hoping to ride well in the tough circuit race, one of the biggest and best-supported events on the US calendar.
Meanwhile, Richard Keller has won two bronze medals at the ongoing World Masters Championship in Manchester. Another Irishman riding well across the Irish Sea recently was Sorrento CC's Paul O'Donoghue, who last weekend exceeded the Irish 12-hour time trial record at an event in Wales. He covered 255.3 miles, and if ratified, will add that record to his existing 24-hour standard.
Finally, Irish cycling lost two well known names in recent days. Former Bray Wheelers international Harry Dawson passed away unexpectedly after a training ride, while cycling official and journalist Jim Traynor also died suddenly. Both gave much to the sport over the years and will be greatly missed.
Irish women's team (for TQ Paper International race): L Moriarty, C Swift, K Rudd, K Bothwell, M O'Reilly, G McDarby.
FIXTURES: Saturday - Woodlands House Hotel two-day, Adare. Kenmare Lost Sheep Triathlon, Kenmare. Sunday - All Ireland Veterans championships, Nutts Corner circuit. Starts noon. Also autumn league race and CI women's league at same venue, start 2 pm. Matthew Corcoran Memorial (Classic League race), starts Naas Town Hall at 1 pm. 4X mountain bike race, Three Rock Mountain. Racing starts 1 pm. Contact Niall at 087 4176029 for details.
