The Silvelle Ciclocross (European CX Champs 2019) is held this weekend in Italy…Irish Junior team is been send and 2 masters involved too…Good luck, In bocca al Lupo
Silvelle will host a historic event in certain respect since it will be the very first time that the title of European Champion will be awarded in the Women’s Juniors category, another step towards gender equality.
The Junior women’s selection Ireland
Roisin Lally (Scott-Eurocycles.com) I saw her racing in Belfast and was very impressed (Photo courtesy of Dan Small)
Darcey Harkness (Carn Wheelers) another talent coming out of Maghera, one thing is sure…Darcey will give her best (photo BP Media team)
Junior men selection Ireland
Darren Rafferty (Island Wheelers) a prospect for going very close…gridding hopefully in his favour and has international experience already (Photo Richard Howes GB)
Ciaran Dixon (Type 1 Development Team GB) a gutsy second-year junior who had a brilliant road season and now concentrate on CX with already solid results in the bag (Photo BP Media team)
Andy Layhe (Team manager) on his last job as manager and coordinator of the National Irish CX teams…Fair play to Andy to see the job finished…he will be a great loss for the national team and wish him luck in his new ventures…This time he is joined by Liz Roche and Paul Birchill as principals and soigneurs. There will be also supported by some of the parents who travelled all the way to Italy such as Paul Dixon, Gary Rafferty, Philip Harkness and Darcey’s brother Travis, and Roisin’s parents. As well as the funding from the Off-road Commission, the team were able to dip into the Cyclo-cross fund that has been going for a while and raised €1,441. A big thanks to Lorna Reilly for her great efforts and many thanks to all the sponsors and supporters for their fundraising. (Photo Martine Verfaillie Bel)
The men masters selection
Paidi O’ Brien M35 (ex-international road rider) who is now a top cross competitor and never far away from a podium in Ireland (photo Sean Rowe)
Paul Birchall M55 (Revolution CC Cork-Pi Cycles) organiser of CX crosses (Mallow) wheel builder and mechanic…an asset to any team (photo Sean Rowe)
Cycling in Silvelle has always been associated with Cyclo-Cross and it has a long and distinguished history of organising all kinds of categories of races from the very young to the big international events. For many years this small city in Veneto has been an established venue for the most important races on the Italian calendar and is ready to welcome women and men from the Juniors, Under 23 and Elite categories, as well as the important group of passionate Masters, from 22 countries offering the public very high-level technical races.
