Impressive Power continues to press his Olympic claims

CYCLING COLUMNWITH TIME ticking down to the date when the two-man squad for the Olympic road race is announced, Ciarán Power has continued his push for a place by riding well in the Tour de Beauce in Canada.

The Pezula Racing rider was second on stage two of the race, a 166-kilometre leg starting and finishing in Vallée-Jonction. The bunch sprint was won by Yuriy Metlushenko (Amore and Vita-McDonald's), with Power netting second. Australian rider Cameron Jennings was next best of the Pezula competitors in 17th place, with Morgan Fox, Martyn Irvine, Derek Burke and David O'Loughlin taking 32nd, 65th, 81st and 93rd respectively.

Power was also best of the team on the opening stage, a 167 kilometre race to Lac Etchemin. Bernardo Colex Tepoz (Tecos Trek Uag) triumphed there, soloing to victory. He bridged up to an earlier move containing Irvine and Jay Robert Thomson (South Africa U23), then left those two behind and hit the line well clear.

Power was 49 seconds down in 19th place, with Jennings a further one second and six places back.

The race continued late yesterday with a 153 kilometre stage to St-Georges/Mont Mégantic. Colex Tepoz headed into that stage 20 seconds clear of the next-best rider, Michael Stevenson (Amore and Vita-McDonald's). Power was 19th overall, while Jennings and O'Loughlin were 20th and 47th.

Irvine was fifth in the mountains classification, Power was ninth in the sprint competition and Pezula Racing were seventh in the teams ranking.

In other news, Nicolas Roche will continue his push for a place on Credit Agricole's Tour de France team when he begins the Tour de Suisse this weekend. The team will decide its line-up after this race plus the various national championships at the end of the month. Roche has been riding strongly this year and knows that a good performance on one or more of the stages in Switzerland may well secure him a place in his first Tour.

He has previously ridden one three-week event, having completed the Giro d'Italia last June.

Finally, a number of events are taking place around Ireland this weekend. These include the Rás Connachta two-day in Westport and the fourth round of the Irish XC NPS series, which will be held on Sunday in Djouce Woods.

FIXTURES: Saturday-Sunday: Ras Connachta two day, stage one starts Westport on Saturday, 11.45. Saturday: Ashford GP, starts 11am. Youth track championships, starts 11am, Orangefield. Emma McMullan road race, starts from Hillsborough, 11.30am. Sunday: Irish XC NPS, Djouce Woods. First races at 11am. IVCA CP, Kentstown. Starts 9.15 am. WTCC TT Series, round three. Starts 10am from Rathnew. Seán Nolan GP, Navan Rugby club. First races at 11am.