Another boost for O’Loughlin

DAVID O’LOUGHLIN gave his form another boost in advance of the FBD Milk Rás when he won the coveted Murphy & Gunn Shay Elliott race in Bray on Sunday.

Olympic Team Manager, Martin O’Loughlin, has named O’Loughlin on the Thornton Recycling Team Ireland for the Rás alongside Tommy Evans, Denis Lynch from Cork, David McCann, who was fourth on Sunday and Eugene Moriarty from Listowel who was sixth.

With the two places in the Olympic road race up for grabs the FBD Milk Rás, which gets under way on May 23, takes on an added dimension for the Irish riders this year.

Welsh riders have a big reputation in the race and this year the Welsh Cycling Union has named a strong Stena Ferry Line team for the eight day international.

Yanto Barker, Paul Shepperd, Huw Prichard and Anthony Malarczyk, who have ridded the race before, will be joined by newcomer, 22 year old David Crowley, to form a formidable outfit that will be in the shake up on May 30 when they arrive back in the Phoenix Park.

Stena Line has a long association with the FBD Milk Rás and is responsible each year for the mammoth task of bringing teams from Scandinavia, Britain and continental Europe.

Eamonn Hewitt, Communications and PR Manager for Stena Line’s Irish Sea Organisation, said Stena line was delighted to support the event again this year.

“We had the privilege of moving the Tour de France into and out of Ireland in 1998 and can appreciate the organisational complexity of an event such as the FBD Milk Rás,” he said.

Meanwhile an Irish under-23 teams heads for the Liege-Bastogne-Liege this week. For this event, which takes place on Saturday, Martin O’Loughlin has named Tim Cassidy, Andrew McQuaid, John O’Shea, Philip Deignan, Paidi O’Brien and Nicolas Roche.