As I do every day, I was reading the latest postings on IrishCycling.Com this morning when a seemingly small detail caught my eye.
Under the headline "IRISH NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS - ENTRY LIST" they've published exactly that, a list of all riders entered for the various Irish championship races due to take place at the end of the month.
There in the list for the Elite Mens TT is the name Michael Hutchinson. That's what caught my eye. Could this be the Michael Hutchinson who's bagged no less than 48 British Time Trial titles since 2000, including a record 11 straight 50-mile golds? Is this the Michael Hutchinson who's attempted the Hour twice and written one of the best cycling books ever about one of those attempts? Is this Dr. Hutch of Cycling Weekly fame?
I really hope so! It'd be great to see this son of Northern Ireland put it up to his fellow islanders. It'd be especially great to see a head-to-head between him and his fellow Northerner, the current British 25 mile Time Trial record holder, and six times Irish TT champion, David McCann.
I might even head up to Emyvale to watch that one.
That would be one good race . I wonder if he has one eye on the olympics ?
ReplyDeleteNot sure about that. I think there's only one place up for grabs for the Olympics, if someone qualifies, and there is a line in the UCI rules that says only riders entered for the RR can ride the TT. That would rule him out.
ReplyDeleteI've just seen the full start list. It is indeed Dr Hutch. Great stuff.
ReplyDeleteOf course this must mean he's not riding the British TT Champs, or at least the British Cycling one, whatever about the RTTC ones. To ride ours he has to have an IRL UCI code on his licence, to ride theirs he'd need a GBR code. You can't have both. In any case you can only ride one National Champs in any discipline in any one year. Obvisouly reckons beating McCann is more likely than beating Wiggo, Millar, Froome et al.
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