Mark Scanlon

emadden

Question: Was it his reluctance to engage to doping that caused him to turn his back on cycling, or did he really suffer from "home sickness" as King Kelly said on a number of times???

I remember Mark riding the 1998 TdF Prologue course in Dublin as a "demonstration" and even as a junior rider his time beat that of a number of pros.... He also killed Pozzato in the sprint at the Junior worlds in 1998 (same Worlds where Basso, Nocentini and Di Luca finished 1,2,3 in the u23 race, and Cancellara became world junior TT champ and Hushovd the u 23 TT Champ).... :shock: It seems Scanlon was only champ from that year that didnt make it.

emadden

Kind of answering my own post... but I found this great piece:
http://www.irishpeloton.com/?tag=scanlon

LangerDan

I think he was also under continual pressure from the Ag2R management to reduce weight. As far as I can remember, in his last year(s) as a European pro, he based himself in Ireland and commuted to the races, rather than living on the Continent. He then signed with a US team in '07 but that only lasted a year. After a number of business ventures, he trained to be a prison warder in about 2008. Don't think he rides a bike very much now, which is a pity. Friendsof mine who raced against him spoke of him as a huge talent.