Ireland squad off to tour in Malaysia

Navan and Kanturk are the venues for the opening events of the new season on Sunday, March 1st, but there is an earlier start for the top men as Morgan Fox, Declan Byrne travels as manager, with masseur John Hammond and John Keegan as mechanic. Racing starts next Wednesday with the finish on March 1st. Eight trade teams and 14 national squads will be taking part, so a high level of competition is assured.

Paddy Doran and Sean O'Callaghan fill the vacancies on the FIC board created by the resignations of Pierce Butler and Brendan Donoghue. Doran is the new chairman of the coaching committee while O'Callaghan takes over responsibility for underage racing.

Even with the season about to get under way, no national team director has been appointed, and the FIC are concentrating more on the selection of a new national coach.

Dermot Dignam, who heads a sub-committee chosen to examine all aspects of the procedure leading to the engagement of a national team director and coach, said they are more concerned with selecting someone to set up a coaching structure.

Agreement was reached on a Frenchman with the necessary credentials, and the FIC applied to the Sports Council for a grant to cover the expense of the appointment, but they are still awaiting a reply. The aim is for the new man to have a group of qualified coaches throughout the country to cater for the expected wave of recruits to the sport following the surge of interest the Tour de France will provide in July.

Meanwhile, Dignam is putting the final touches to the route for the FBD Milk Ras from May 16th to 24th, and he is also finalising the FIC calendar of events. The Sunday before the Tour de France starts is designated by the UCI as the day for national championships --this year it is July 5th - but as a special, pre-Tour outing is planned that day over the route for stage one over the Wicklow Gap, negotiations are going on between the club in Carrick-on-Suir, who applied for the championship again, and it may be held a day earlier, on Saturday, July 4th.