Nicolas Roche got Ireland’s UCI World Championships campaign underway in Ponferrada, Spain yesterday with a fifth-place finish in the Elite men’s team time-trial.

Ireland’s Dan Martin and Nicolas Roche survived another nerve-shredder at the Tour de France yesterday, the duo crossing the line in the same time as stage winner Marcel Kittel after avoiding a nasty pile-up with two kilometres to go.

Matthew Brammeier is aiming to become the first man ever to win three Irish National senior road-race titles in-a-row tomorrow when he heads a star-studded field in Clonmel for the 168-kilometre one-day event.

The official announcement of the three-man Irish Olympic cycling team, which was due yesterday, has been delayed until next Friday after one of the short-listed riders who was not picked lodged an appeal to Cycling Ireland.

On a day when Mark Cavendish crashed in the final kilometre and lost any hope of his second stage win at the Tour of Qatar, fellow sprinter Tom Boonen wrapped up overall victory in the Persian Gulf.