Cycling Reports

Hodnett all set for pro season

By Gerard Cromwell (Jan 5)

With the 2002 cycling season almost upon us, Corkman James Hodnett is the latest Irish cyclist to sign a professional contract for next year. With Waterford’s Ciaran Power due to race for the American Navigators team and Irish road race champion, Belfast’s David McCann having signed for Polish team Ceresit-Henkel, Hodnett will add another splash of green to the professional peleton when he turns out for an American based team in 2002.

Having lived in San Francisco for the past five years, Hodnett will become the first Cork cyclist to turn professional when he rides for the OFOTO - Lombardia Sports team in the new year. "I've been riding with this team for the past four years." says Hodnett from his American home, which he shares with his Dublin-born wife Amanda and newly-arrived baby son Cian. "We have been arguably the best amateur team in America for the past three or four years. We were already sponsored by the biggest sports retailers in San Francisco; Lombardia Sports, and when OFOTO (an online photograph developers) came onboard with more money, the natural progression was to go professional. I’m really looking forward to the pro deal, even though I’m not getting much training done at the moment with baby Cian."

Hodnett has been doing his best to add some more Irish blood to the team. "When I found out that the team would be going professional, I wanted to try and sign some more Irish riders. I had been talking to Ciaran Power, Mark Scanlon and some others." The American squad have also signed Dubliner John Brady, who was a former professional with the ground breaking 7-Eleven team in the late eighties. "John has plenty of experience." says Hodnett, "He will be the guiding light for a lot of the younger guys. We have about eight riders under the age of 23, that's half of the team really."

Hodnett, who grew up in Courtmacsherry, West Cork, before moving to the City as a ten year old hasn't lost touch with the Irish cycling scene. He has ridden with the Stamullen / Meath East team in the FBD Milk Ras for the past two years and looks forward to coming home to race. "I really love racing in Ireland. I would hope to have the whole team coming over to ride the Ras next year and hopefully we will have a very strong Irish rider as team leader. We have been talking to him and there are two or three little things to be ironed out, but I think it will go ahead. The team will ride the Ras supporting him, if he chooses to race with us. I hope he does, because personally I am a very big fan of his.”

James’ sister Sandra would probably be even more famous in professional cycling circles as she has been a team masseuse with the first division Mercury squad for the past number of years. Next season will see the OFOTO- Lombardia Sports team with 15 riders, two more of whom will be familiar to Irish cycling fans. Colby Pearce finished 3rd in the 1999 FBD Milk Ras while new signing Erik Saunders also rode the Ras this year for the Swiss professional team Fisconseils. The squad will be based in San Francisco and will ride all of the top American races as well as some European events. The team will also ride American-made Klein bikes for the duration of 2002.