LIMERICK will have representation at the Cycling World Championships in Spain this weekend after the selection of 18-year-old Stephen Shanahan for Team Ireland.
The teenager from Limerick Cycling Club was picked for the Irish junior team for the event in Pontferrada this Saturday September 27, becoming the first man from Limerick to represent his country at the championships since the late David Hourigan.
Shanahan, who has been picked on provincial and national teams on several occasions in the last two years, will be joined on the Irish junior team by Dylan O’Brien, Daire Feeley, Michael O’Loughin and team captain Eddie Dunbar.
All of these young cyclists have performed at the highest level this year at the Junior Tour of Ireland and Junior Tour of Wales, both of which were won by Dunbar, as well as the European Junior Championships in Switzerland and the Trofeo Karlsberg Nations Cup, all of which are esteemed prestigious road races.
Shanahan had been hoping to make the cut given his previous experience, but he admitted that it was touch and go right up to the final decision at the start of September.
He said: “I can’t wait for it. I’m at the end of a long season now and it was my aim throughout the year to get onto the Irish team for the World Championships.
“I was delighted to make the team because we have a really good crop of youngsters in Ireland and it was always going to be a tough decision for the coaches.
“I had been hoping that my experience of being on Irish teams before would count in my favour. It was a Sunday night a couple of weeks ago when I got a call to say that I had made the team so I was really happy about that.”
