THERE is still no decision on the Irish start to the Tour de France next year but FIC president Pat McQuaid expects all the logistics problems will be sorted out satisfactorily and an announcement made by the end of February.

McQuaid said a lot of work has been done on the project in recent weeks to have the prologue time trial in Dublin and then two stages on Irish roads, but agreement has not been reached yet on the shipment of the Tour vehicles and equipment back to France. However, negotiations are continuing and he hopes it will all be finalised in the next couple of weeks.

McQuaid will be attending the European Union conference in Munich today and tomorrow and he leaves London on Sunday for Manilla. He is race director again of the Tour of the Philippines in April.

Competition on the home scene gets under way on March 1st but most of the top men will be racing with French clubs this season. Like David McCann, who goes to Pontivy in Brittany, Peter Daly has a great chance of breaking through to the elite rank as he has moved up to the St Quentin club in the north east.

Aidan Duff continues, with Vendee U, Ciaran Power will be in the same region with Nantes again while Paul Butler goes to Essonne Creteil to race in the Paris area.

Paul Griffin joins ACBB in Paris with Robert Whelan, Aidan Crowley and Brian Kenneally, while Eugene Moriarty will also be campaigning in France, as will Morgan Fox and Dermot Finnegan of the Cuchulainn club in Dundalk.

Michael McNena resumes in Marseilles while Padraic Quinn and Mark Hutton return to the clubs they were with last season. Philip Collins has secured a place with a club in Toulouse.

Micheal Fitzgerald is undecided about continuing in, France this year while Finn O Sullivan and Paul Giles who were with a Belgian club last season, will also be starting off in the local events.