Seven Irish riders will
take on Scheldeprijs tomorrow in what is a busy week for Irish cyclists racing
on the pro scene in Europe.
Eddie Dunbar was listed to ride Itzulia Basque Country, the World Tour stage race taking place this week in Spain. While it would have been interesting to see how he performed at this level after his win at Coppi e Bartali last week, illness has forced him out.
In his absence, the
EvoPro Racing team is riding Scheldeprijs over 198.7km in Belgium tomorrow.
Irish riders Daire Feeley, Conn McDunphy and Mitchell McLaughlin are in the
line-up and will go up against most of the biggest teams in the sport.
Sam Bennett, who was 2nd in the race last year, and Irish champion Ryan Mullen are in the Bora-hansgrohe line-up. Bennett will be looking to build his form and maybe take a result as he continues his return to the top after an injury-hit season last year.
Stephen Clancy
also lines out in Scheldeprijs for his
Novo Nordisk team. The Irishman and his team mates will be looking to get in
the breakaway moves.
Megan Armitage will be the sole Irish rider in the women’s race. She lines out for her IBCT team. She made her European season debut at Dwars door Vlaanderen last week following a successful winter in Australia.
Ben Healy is
currently in action for EF Education-EasyPost at Circuit Cycliste Sarthe. He
finished in the reduced peloton – down to 80 riders – on today’s opening stage.
That bunch was some 49 seconds down on stage winner Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo),
who claimed victory from the breakaway.
Darren Rafferty (18) will be in action at four-stage Circuit des Ardennes, which gets underway tomorrow. His latest outing, in France, for Hagens Berman Axeon comes after an impressive display in Le Triptyque des Monts et Châteaux in Belgium at the weekend.
