David McCann was best of the Irish team on yesterday's 11th stage of the Herald Sun Tour in Australia. The Belfast rider placed 35th in the race to Ballarat, finishing the 120 kilometres eight minutes and 27 seconds behind winner Henk Vogels of Australia.
McCann is best placed of the quintet in the general classification, remaining 24 minutes and 59 seconds behind overall leader Peter Wrolich of Austria, but drops one place to 20th overall.
The Herald Sun Tour continues today with two stages, a 31-kilometre individual time trial and a 36-kilometre criterium. The world-ranked pro-am event ends on Sunday.
Meanwhile, Ciaran Power, who was an excellent ninth overall in last year's contest, is closer to securing a renewal of his contract with the St Quentin-Oktos team for next season. According to his agent, Frank Quinn, the French outfit have indicated that they are likely to retain the 25 year old, but Quinn stresses that nothing has yet been signed. "The indications are good, but we will just have to wait and see," he said.
Hopes that mountain biking may undergo some much-needed growth were boosted last weekend with the election of the first MTB commission, which will work alongside the ICF board. Peter Popham takes responsibility for downhill racing, Geoff Seymour is the chairman of the cross country section while Joe McCall and Richie Byrne will oversee facilities and leisure respectively.
Media co-ordination is to be the focus of David Gill, Vincent Bradley is responsible for the underage contingent and technical/sporting affairs will be dealt with by Muriel Franzoni. Popham and Seymour have called for applications from those who wish to stage MTB races next year.
Today marks the deadline for nominations for board positions at next month's ICF a.g.m. All forms must be returned to the ICF offices by close of business this evening.
Finally, there has been a good response to this weekend's coaching seminar in the NCTC in the University of Limerick. All available places have been filled.
Fixtures: October 26th-28th: High-performance coaching seminar, National Coaching and Training Centre at the University of Limerick.
Tomorrow: Cyclo cross race, Solitude Park, Banbridge. Starts 12 noon. Track cycling workshop for women and underage cyclists. 10 am, Sundrive road track. Contact Will Byrne on 086 8047839 .
Sunday: Killarney CC Autumn MTB league, downhill race at Torc. Starts noon, contact Denis O'Shea at 064 34294.
