Mark Scanlon’s dreams of riding in the Tour de France could be realised in next month’s 101st edition of the race after one of the best weekends of his short professional career.
The release of the latest UCI road rankings put the talented 23-year-old at 115th (403 points) in the world, the highest Irish placing since the halcyon days of Sean Kelly and Stephen Roche.
The leap from 159th can be put down to his brilliant double victory in Estonia in the past six days, over the 1.3 categorised Tallinn GP and Tartu Tanavasoit.
The knock-on effect also sees Ireland up to thirtieth in the team standings, and if they maintain that positioning until August 15th, two World championship places will be secured.
Scanlon's team Ag2R Prevoyance are due to finalise their tour line-up in the next fortnight. If Scanlon can line up on July 3 for the Liege prologue start to the historic race he will become the first Irishman to compete since Roche bowed out of the peloton in 1993.
Ag2R yesterday added a new Irish recruit to their 2005/2006 line-up with the signature of 20-year-old Philip Deignan. The Letterkenny amateur recently won the Ronde de l’Isard event, riding for the Marseille-based VC La Pomme team.
Filed by Rob Wright
