Dan Martin and Nicolas Roche, who competed in the recent Tour de France, will represent Ireland at the UCI Road World Championships at Imola, Italy, this weekend, and will be joined in the 4-man Irish squad by Ryan Mullen and Ben Healy.
Two Irish riders, Ryan Mullan and Nicolas Roche will race the elite men’s time trial tomorrow, Friday, 25 September. The largely flat 31.7-kilometre route starts and finishes at the Imola autodrome and passes through the town of Borgo at the halfway mark. Unlike the road race, the time trial course has just 200m of elevation gain meaning it is expected riders will need to average in excess of 50kph to be in contention.
Roche suffered a crash on stage 10 of this year’s Tour however recovered well to feature in multiple breakaways and secure his 64th top 10 stage finish in a Grand Tour.
Mullan is a 4-time Irish National Champion in the time trial and bronze medallist at the 2017 European Championships while Roche has 2 TT National titles to his name.
Both Roche and Mullen will also compete in the men’s road race over an arduous 258.2 kilometres featuring 9 loops and 5,000m of climbing on Sunday, 27 September. They will be joined in the race by Ben Healy and Dan Martin.
Martin started the Tour de France just 2 weeks after fracturing a bone in his lower back. The injury forced Martin to maintain a low profile in the early stages of the race however he sprung into the limelight on stage 13 in a long-range breakaway finishing 11th and again on stage 17. With the Israel Start-Up Nation cycling team member coming into form, the 2020 UCI Road World Championships course looks to suit the punchy climber.
Ireland Squad for UCI Road World Championships, Imola, 25-27 September
Elite Men road race: Dan Martin, Nicolas Roche, Ben Healy, Ryan Mullen.
Elite Men Time Trial: Nicolas Roche, Ryan Mullen.
