Shane Stokes
Cycling Ireland is aiming for a strong showing in next month's pro-am Tour de Langkawi in Malaysia, with prominent finishes in stages and a good overall placing by two riders seen as realistic objectives.
Releasing the final team line-up over the weekend, Olympic team manager Martin O'Loughlin said it was difficult to more accurately predict what was achievable at this early stage, but that UCI world-ranking points would be a big incentive for the riders.
"I think that we'll have to wait until after the second stage before we can realistically set our goals," he said. "You can't go into a 2.2-ranked event planning to stamp your mark all over the race. However, high GC placings by two riders and high stage placings on two or three stages isn't unrealistic. The riders have every incentive to go for it with a considerable number of UCI points on offer."
O'Loughlin confirmed Eugene Moriarty and Tim Barry would fill the final two places on the seven-man team. Last week he announced five of the riders to travel to Malaysia for the February 6th start, with David O'Loughlin, Paul Griffin, David McCann, Philip Deignan and national under-23 champion Denis Lynch in the Hibernian Team Ireland set-up for the 10-day event.
O'Loughlin had in the meantime been trying to secure the participation of Mark Scanlon and Ciarán Power for the tour. However, Scanlon's Ag2R squad and Power's Navigators team have commitments elsewhere around the same time and consequently neither rider will be released for the Malaysian event.
The seven-man team will be backed by four officials. Frank Campbell will act as manager, John Keegan as mechanic, while Jerry O'Dwyer and Brendan Whelan will provide the massages to help the riders cope with the demands of the tough race.
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