Newton to lay down law in defence of Rás

CHRIS NEWTON goes to the start line in Tallaght tomorrow defending his FBD Insurance Rás title.

With a collection of Olympic, world championship and world championship medals in his treasury, but will face what is generally regarded as the strongest field ever assembled for Irish cycling’s showpiece.

The 32-year-old Englishman knows the ropes. He won the title in 2003 and returned last year to reclaim it in a war of attrition with the teak-tough veteran, Malcolm Elliot.

This year he does not have to look too far for the threat to his defence of title. That could come from within his own powerful Recycling.co.uk team. Christian House won the Lincoln Grand Prix from leading Irish hope, Paul Healion (Murphy & Gunn/Newlyn Group), and Rob Sharman has also shown form winning the Rutland Grand Prix, the fifth race on the Premier Calendar, when Murphy & Gunn’s Andy Roche crashed while challenging him.

Just to ensure the relentless pace will be as close to reckless as possible, Mark Lovatt, mountains winner last year, Wayne Randle and John Tanner return to the peloton on the Doncaster Stena Line team. The last time they teamed up was in 2000 when Randle was second overall to Julian Winn, Lovatt third and Tanner 10th.

The former world Under-23 time-trial champion, Danny Pate, arrives from the US with a very strong TIAA-CREF team ready to challenge.

Polish teams have figured prominently in the history of the Rás and there is always an air of anticipation about their presence.

The return of the Norwegians is significant. Last their they arrived with a young team full of hope but Rás racing is unique and they were not quite ready for it. Morten Hegrebert won a stage and wore the yellow jersey for a time while Morten Christiansen also won a stage. Hegrebert returns a wiser man and he has to be rated among the challengers.

If Irish riders are to assert themselves then the ones to do it could be the two-time national champion, David O’Loughlin, with the Grant Thornton Team Ireland, Paul Healion from the new Murphy & Gunn/Newlyn Group professional team, and two-time winner, Ciaran Power.

O’Loughlin has not raced since April 16. He has been preparing for the Rás and the US professional championships.

“This is the strongest Rás field ever,” he insisted yesterday. “I have not raced for a while but training has gone well so we will take it day by day and see how it goes but the Rás is so unpredictable.”

Frank Campbell has built a team around the national champion — national U-23 champion, Páidi O’Brien, and Roger Aiken, from the Sean Kelly/M Donnelly professional team, Murphy & Gunn’s Connor Murphy who won the mountain classification in Rás Mumhan, and Ryan Connor, who has been racing with EC Mayenne in France and was 2003 British junior champion.

Ciaran Power (Tipperary Dan Morrissey) is riding his way back to fitness after surgery on an obstruction that stopped the flow of blood in his leg. He rides alongside David O’Loughlin with the US Navigators team but only opened his season in the recent Tour of Ulster where he impressed.

That race was won by his team mate, Ray Clarke, the man in form at the moment looking for his first ever stage win. Martin O’Loughlin, Timmy Barry and Rory Wyley have an abundance of experience to back them up.

Paul Healion (Murphy & Gunn) is an exciting prospect. He won Rás Mumhan and finished second in the Lincoln Grand Prix.