MARK SCANLON

'Mark Scanlon' (born October 10, 1980 in Cranmore, Sligo, Ireland) is an Irish professional cyclist. Scanlon first came to prominence when he won the Junior race at the 1998 World Cycling Championship, on his 18th birthday.

Contents

Amateur career

Professional career

Major achievements

References

External links

Amateur career

After winning the Rainbow jersey Scanlon signed for the Rabobank cycling team's development squad. He failed to make the breakthrough expected though, as injuries blighted his early career and he was released in 2000. He signed with French team CC Etupes and rode strongly is some of the lesser French races. He was offered contract by the Linda McCartney Racing Team in 2001 but the team folded before he joined them. Scanlon continued to ride in France with first VC Nantes 44 and then VC La Pomme Marseille. In 2002 he won the Irish Road Race championship for the first time.

Professional career

Scanlon signed for AG2R Prévoyance team for the 2003 season. The highlight of his first season was winning a stage in the Tour of Denmark and wearing the leader's jersey for 3 days. He also retained his Irish national championship. In 2004 Scanlon became the first Irish cyclist to ride in the Tour de France since the great Stephen Roche in 1993. He was also represented Ireland in the 2004 Summer Olympics in the road race on the opening day of competition of the games. Scanlon was once again plagued by injuries for much of the 2005 and 2006 season but he did ride in the 2006 Giro d'Italia.
He will leave the AG2R Prévoyance team at the end of 2006. He has expressed some disillusionment with the amount of racing required in the ProTour. At the start of the 2007 season, he switched to the US circuit and rode for the Toyota-United team. During the summer of 2007, there were reports that Scanlon had retired.^[1] It appeared that Scanlon had left the Toyota United team.^[2] Scanlon denied that he had retired, saying that he would like to captain a third division Irish continental team^[3] but for the time being, he had taken a "step back from professional cycling."

Major achievements

;2005 – AG2R Prévoyance
: Circuit des Ardennes, Stage 4
;2004 – AG2R Prévoyance
: 89th, overall Tour de France
:: First Grand Tour completed
:: Young rider: 14th
: 1st, Ühispanga Tartu GP
: 1st, E.O.S GP de Tallinn
: Represented Ireland at Athens Olympics Road Race
;2003 – AG2R Prévoyance
: 1st, National Road Race Championship
: 5th, overall Tour of Denmark
:: Stage win
:: Points: 4th
:: Young rider: 3rd
:: held yellow & points jersey
;2002 – VC La Pomme
: 1st, National Road Race Championship
;1998
: 1st, World Junior Road Race Championship

References

1. Scanlon retires from cycling
2. Former world champion gets ready for the next stage - with no regret
3. You can't compete with drug cheats

External links

★ Mark Scanlon Fans Unofficial fansite

★ Toyota-United Official profile