The next cycling race that will be covered on Sargeant Sports News by daily stage reports and possibly live text commentary via our Twitter feed will be the Tour of Ireland starting on Friday (21st August) to Sunday (23 August).
The tour itself may sound easy on paper due to the fact that it is only 3 stages long, but none of the stages go without any climbing.
Stage 1 is a 196 km route from Powerscourt to Waterford. It houses 2 category 3 climbs, 1 category 2 climb and 1 category 1 climb.
There is 2 category 2 climbs in 196km stage 2 from Clonmel to Killarney, however the interesting climb of the day is the only other climb on the profile – it is a category 1 climb that comes just 35 km to the finish so expect there to be some moves coming from riders who fancy trying to take a breakaway win.
There should be more breakaway attempts on the final stage - stage 3, 185km from Bantry to Cork because towards the end of the stage there is 3 laps of category 1 st patricks hill. The only other climb on the stage is a category 3 climb at the start of the stage.
The Tour of Ireland is not a tour for unknown riders - Lance Armstrong and Mark Cavendish are 2 of the big names riding the race. Stuart O’Grady, Bert Grabsch and last years winner Marco Pinotti are also riding the race.
