Olympic track hopefuls hit the roads in Ireland

Most of New Zealand’s potential Olympic track hopes hit the roads around the globe this week as part of their build-up for London 2012.

Some of the men’s endurance track squad, based in Belgium for the northern hemisphere summer, have their first major test in the eight-day Ras Tour of Ireland starting today.

The 2.2 category UCI event is the major annual tour in cycling-mad Ireland, this year attracting 185 riders including international teams from New Zealand, Asia, Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Ukraine, USA as well as Great Britain and hosts Ireland.

Many are under-23 riders including the kiwi quartet of Auckland’s Aaron Gate and Myron Simpson, Timaru’s Shane Archboldmand Southland-based Marlborough rider Cameron Karwowski. They will have the experience of Beijing and Delhi medallist Mark Ryan (Timaru) to call on for the demanding Irish test.

This year's race covers 1247 kilometres with 28 categorised climbs, starting today in Dunboyne near Dublin and travelling counter-clockwise around the country to the south and west before the traditional finish at the coastal town of Skerries.

The Ras Tailteann, named after an annual Celtic sporting event, began in 1953 and has been held every year since, now referred to as the Ras. The famous winners include Irish star Stephen Roache, Paul McQuaid, son of UCI President Pat McQuaid, and Germany’s Tony Martin.

“It’s going to be a very tough test,” said BikeNZ coach Stu MacDonald. “It was a fantastic experience for our riders last year and extremely demanding. Reports and our scouting suggests that it is going to be even tougher this year.

“The primary aim is to get in some very tough and competitive racing in Europe on the roads which we know will provide the ideal foundation when the guys switch to the track later in the year.

“That said, we will be looking for the likes of Shane Archbold to be prominent in the sprint stages while Marc Ryan and Aaron Gate will be prominent in some of the tougher stages.”

Meanwhile sprinters Sam Webster, Eddie Dawkins and Ethan Mitchell compete in their first serious competition at the Grand Prix in the Tula Velodrome, south of Moscow, starting on Thursday.

Teammate Simon van Velthooven has remained at their base in Germany to recuperate after crashing in their first event in Cottbus, and is expected to return to full competition next month.

The women’s endurance track team head to USA when their will compete in some road tours through to August. The squad of Alison Shanks, Lauren Ellis, Jaime Nielsen, Kaytee Boyd and Gemma Dudley will be based in the cycling-stronghold of Kutztown in Pennsylvania.

Their first road event is the Liberty Classic on 5 June with the major targets including the Nature Valley Tour, Tour of Toona and Cascade Tour, all part of the US National Championship Series.