Mark Scanlon was born on October 10th 1980 in Cranmore, Sligo.
He is well known in Sligo as a professional cyclist, after first coming to prominence when he won the Junior race at the 1998 World Cycling Championship, on his 18th birthday.
After winning the rainbow jersey, Scanlon signed for the Rabobank cycling team’s development squad, though he failed to make the expected breakthrough as injuries blighted his early career and he was released in 2000.
He then went on to sign with the French team, CC Etupes and rode strongly is some of the lesser French races.
He was offered a contract by the late Linda McCartney team in 2001, but the team folded before he joined them. Scanlon continued to ride in France, first with the VC Nantes 44 Team and then with the VC La Pomme Marseille Team.
In 2002 he won the Irish Road Race Championship for the first time.
After this, Scanlon signed for the 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 title and in 2004 Scanlon became the first Irish cyclist to ride in the world famous Tour de France since the great Stephen Roche in 1993.
He also represented Ireland in the 2004 summer Olympics in the road race on the opening day of competition of the games, though he was once again plagued by injuries for much of the 2005 and 2006 seasons, but he did ride in the 2006 Giro d’Italia.
He left the AG2R Prévoyance Team at the end of 2006, after expressing 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 is riding for the Toyota-United Team.
Mark Scanlon’s Major Wins Include:
1998 World Junior Road Race Championship
2002 Irish National Road Race Championship
2003 Irish National Road Race Championship
2003 Tour of Denmark, 1 stage
2004 Uhispanga Tartu GP
2004 E.O.S Tallinn GP
2005 Circuit des Ardennes, 1 stage
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