Deignan's hectic schedule

CYCLING:IRISH PROFESSIONAL Philip Deignan is heading towards 2009 motivated to ride well with his new squad, the Cérvelo Test Team. He has received his programme for the first half of the season and will compete in some of cycling's biggest races in that time.

The 25-year-old Letterkenny rider will begin racing on February 9th in the Tour de Langkawi, then return to Europe to ride the GP di Lugano, Paris-Nice, the Vuelta Castilla y Leon plus the Tour du Pays Basques.

He will then ride in the three hilly spring Classics, namely Amstel Gold, Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège, before lining out in the Giro d'Italia for the second year in succession.

"It is a pretty full-on programme for the start of the year," he said this week. Deignan will be a team-mate to the 2008 Tour de France victor Carlos Sastre and, if the early part of the season goes well, he could make his career debut in that race, assisting the defending champion.

"The team asked me how I would feel about doing two Grand Tours," he said, referring to the Giro d'Italia and Tour de France. "I told them they need to be realistic, see how things go. It is hard to do two Grand Tours in a row, so we will see closer to the time. But obviously it would be great to do both."

Nicolas Roche (Ag2r) and Daniel Martin (Garmin Chipotle) are likely to join Deignan in some of the sport's biggest events.

In other news, women's commission chairperson Valerie Considine has said she is encouraged by the progress made in that side of the sport. Thanks to strong work by the commission and others, the number of female licence holders exceeded 550 this season.

That increase has coincided with an improvement in the level of the top riders. Multiple national champion Siobhan Dervan is the clearest example of this, the Corkwoman finishing a fine 24th in the world road race championships in September.

Orla Hendron is now part of the board of Cycling Ireland and Considine recognises that this will give them a better representation. This plus a more balanced carding criteria will, she feels, help ensure that female riders have more equal treatment in future.

One area of discontent earlier this year was the fact that the top riders were passed over for carding. "I think things have definitely progressed since then," she said.

Finally, Cycling Ireland is recruiting a new high performance director. Further details can be obtained from CI by calling 01- 8551522.

Fixtures: Sunday: Connacht MTB League round 5, Ross Wood, Rosscahil. Starts noon.

Off road commission AGM, Marine Hotel, Sutton Cross, Dublin. Starts 4pm.