Sorrento club revive event

The Sorrento club revive the track championship meeting at Sundrive Road,

Dublin, tomorrow and Sunday and Seamus Sullivan has a crowded programme organised with a total of 10 titles at stake. There will also be a few additional events for those eliminated from the championships.

The opening heats will get underway tomorrow at noon with the start an hour earlier on Sunday and, weather permitting, it is hoped to finish by six o'clock each day.

There will be a sprint championship, kilometre time trial and four-kilometre pursuit for seniors, juniors and women with the points race providing an attractive finale.

Last year the only track titles decided were the kilometre time trial and points which were won by Paul Doyle and Tommy Evans. While these shortest distance events are underway, the longest and toughest of all, the Tour de

France, reaches its climax on the Champs Elysees on Sunday and from what I saw at Saint-Etienne last Friday and on the following great Alpine climbs at Alpe d'Huez, Courchevel and Morzine, 23-year-old German Jan Ullrich will be a worthy addition to the role of Tour winners.

Last year Ullrich's Telekom team leader Bjarne Riis showed something like we had become accustomed to from Miguel Indurain, the five times in-a-row winner, but the big Dane was unable to repeat the performance this time, and although there were a few occasions when Ullrich could not match Richard Virenque and

Marco Pantani, the power of Ullrich was awesome in the Saint-Etienne time trial as he made three minutes on Virenque, who was second fastest.

Ullrich should increase his advantage in the 62 kilometres time trial at

Disneyland-Paris tomorrow, and he looks capable of setting up a sequence of Tour wins.

The crowd reaction was as amazing as usual as I drove up ahead of the race on

Alpe d'Huez and also on the mountains on the way up to the finish at Courcheval and on Monday down in Morzine. Hopefully, Irish spectators will get some of the special Tour buzz next year on July 11th, 12th and 13th.