Martin misses early training after surgery

CYCLING:DANIEL MARTIN has missed out on the first training camp of his Garmin-Cervelo team as he recovers from nasal surgery. The 24-year-old climber had the recent operation to address chronic allergy issues that he has been suffering from at certain points of the season, and was unable to travel to the camp.

World road race champion Thor Hushovd is one of the new signings for the squad, which looks set to be one of the strongest in the world in 2011.

The riders are enjoying warm weather in Cayman Islands, while Martin remains at his base in Girona.

Elsewhere, there will be just one Irish competitor at the Melbourne round of the track World Cup this weekend. Australia-based Shannon McCurley will ride the women’s Omnium events today, aiming to do as well as possible. UCI rules mean that a country has to participate in a certain number of World Cup events in order to earn a place in the world championships.

Another round will be held later this month in Cali, Columbia.

Running from December 16th to 18th, Martyn Irvine, Felix English, Jennifer O’Reilly, Caroline Ryan and Ciara Horne will all take part.

English made headlines recently when he knocked Olympic champion Chris Hoy out of the first round of the sprint in the European championships.

One rider who looks unlikely to compete any time soon is mountainbike competitor-turned road racer Connor McConvey. He competed with the An Post Grant Thornton M Donnelly Sean Kelly team this season and showed good promise, but has decided to give the sport a rest.

“I have decided to take a break because I’m just not having fun on my bike anymore,” he said this week. “We’ve tried for three or four months to bring things back to basics – purely fun – but nothing has changed.

“I know that you can’t enjoy life 100 per cent of the time, but when your passion for the sport dwindles you can’t effectively go through the 80 per cent of the really hard times to justify the 20 per cent of the good times you experience. The sport is too hard if you don’t love it all.”

He may have a change of heart once he has had a break.

“It’s time now for me to get out of the cycling bubble for the first time in my life, to experience a bit of life and to find myself as a person,” he said.

Fixtures:Saturday-Sunday: Sean Kelly training weekend in Mayo postponed until February due to weather conditions.