Ryan Mullen is the most exciting young prospect we have on the track, but is the search intense enough for other young riders who could develop in time to international standard?
While a new velodrome appears to be on the way for Ireland, an expansion of the number of riders in the national track squad in the more immediate future would bring a range of real benefits for riders, Cycling Ireland and our medal chances at major championships and the Olympics, writes well known coach Paddy Doran of www.peakendurancecoaching.com
The excellent results at the recent World Track Championships in Cali, Colombia, by a small Irish team showed there are real hopes for medals at the Rio Olympics in 2016.
While the Irish squad was a very small one, they performed really well and everyone involved must be congratulated.
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We can see already with Ryan Mullen how quickly good riders can adapt and make big improvements with good coaching and the sports science support available within the Cycling Ireland track programme.
He was 4th in the individual pursuit and yet is still only aged 19 years and was competing at his first track Worlds.
Caroline Ryan has also made great improvements over the last few years, taking a bronze medal at the Worlds two years ago, a bronze at a UCI World Cup late last year and coming very close to scratch race silver in Colombia the week before last.
Martyn Irvine – who won silver in Cali - has consistently shown he is capable of performing and getting results at the very top of international track cycling.
He now has three Worlds medals – a gold and two silvers - and has taken bronze at the Europeans and also won two silvers and a gold at World Cups.
So against the background of all of that success, naturally our thoughts will now be turning to the Rio Olympics 2014.
What are the chances of Olympic medals?
Cycling’s Olympic track programme features five events for both men and women:
- Sprint
- Team Sprint
- Keirin
- Team Pursuit
- Omnium
It looks like the races being targeted at the moment for Caroline Ryan and Martyn Irvine are the omniums. The individual sprint and keirin are being earmarked for Eoin Mullen.
The latter is making great progress as a sprinter and wouldn’t it be great if Ireland were to qualify our first sprinter for an Olympics at the Rio Games?
Based on his recent and past performances, Martyn Irvine must be looked on as a real medal contender if everything goes well.
But there are also untapped possibilities for the Olympic track programme in the individual and team sprint events.
We undoubtedly have some riders who could be developed with these events in mind. A dedicated sprint programme is a realistic goal.
Are we putting too much pressure on riders like Martyn Irvine to qualify for major championships as well as medal at them? And if others could help qualify places for Ireland would he have more time to peak for major goals and do even better? (Photo: Guy Swarbrick)
Effects of no velodrome
At this stage, just under 900 days out from the Rio Olympics, plans will already be taking shape for a qualification programme. However, because of the lack of an Irish velodrome, those plans will involve a fairly small group of riders.
The reasons for this are mostly financial. It’s expensive to travel to training camps in Majorca or elsewhere, so the numbers availing of that training tend to be limited.
A national velodrome would immediately eliminate that problem. Indeed, what has been spent over the years on travelling abroad for track training purposes would contribute to building a long-mooted facility of our own.
The absence of a velodrome and its limiting effect on the number of riders that can be involved in the Olympic track programme leads us to a precarious situation.
A lot of time and money will be invested in a very small number of riders for the 2016 Games.
If any of that group has problems before the Rio Games, four years or more of investment could very well be lost because, with such a small squad, there may be no riders at a suitable level to replace them.
Increase size of squads
So it really is important to find some way of involving more riders in the track programme until Ireland has its own velodrome.
With such a small squad at present, there will be a lot of pressure on current members to qualify Ireland for their events in Rio.
However, if there were more riders being prepared with track time and opportunities to compete for Ireland, there may also be more qualification opportunities, leading to an easing of pressure on the existing squad members.
Another benefit that would come from involving more riders in the qualification process is that athletes like Caroline Ryan, Martyn Irvine and others could focus on peaking for the Games, rather than chasing qualifying points in races for long periods beforehand.
This is how the GB team have been able to get Bradley Wiggins and others to the Olympics in peak condition; other riders qualify places for GB in a variety of events and then those most likely to win medals are selected to fill those places and are given plenty of time to prepare.
While waiting for a velodrome
If there was a velodrome in Ireland it would be possible to create more strength in depth in the national track squad. However, it is unlikely such a facility will be in place before the next Olympics.
With the announcement last week that the Government has edged forward its plans for a purpose built velodrome in Abbotstown in west Dublin, there is a good chance construction will have started on that venue by the time Rio comes around. But it would not be completed in time.
In the meantime, Cycling Ireland along with the sports councils north and south might find some way of bringing more riders into the squads.
It is in the interests of Cycling Ireland and the councils to prepare more riders for top flight international competition, if only to safeguard the investment of time and money they will put in over the next two years to Rio.
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Shannon McCurley has taken good results, beating some Australian international riders sprinting in Tasmania recently for example. Can we do more to bring riders like her deeper into the Irish set-up?
Possible riders to add to the national track squad
Before I start naming names, I’d like to point out that I don’t coach any of the riders I’m mentioning here and I’ve no particular interest in any of them over others.
Felix English showed excellent ability in Australia at the beginning of this season when getting some very good placings against world class riders including some exceptional Australian trackies.
English demonstrated some of the abilities required for the Olympic omnium. I imagine with some dedicated track time he could perform very well in this event.
Lydia Boylan is now racing and training full time. From what I saw of her at last year’s national track championships, she could also develop into an excellent omnium rider once afforded dedicated track time.
She took silver to Caroline Ryan’s gold at the national’s scratch race and won the 500metres TT gold, an event in which Ryan took bronze. Boylan claimed sprint silver at the same meeting.
Also at last year’s national track championships, young Tipperary rider Philip Ryan showed exceptional talent in the sprint events, taking bronze in both the sprint and keirin. If he were to get more track time he could develop into a top class sprinter and keirin rider.
Once again, this may enhance Ireland’s chance of qualifying for sprint events and help riders to prepare well for the Olympics.
We also have Mary Costelloe, who won the sprint event at last year’s national track championships even though struggling badly with injuries sustained just two weeks earlier when a car door was opened on her as she passed.
She was visibly limping after her events.
Costelloe is another strong all-rounder with a good road and track record. She is the real deal as a track rider and had a number of top five placings in the European Championships points and scratch events as a junior.
Shannon McCurley is another very classy rider with results, including a bronze medal in the scratch event at the 2011 European Track Championships.
Based in Australia, she has already enjoyed some very good results there this year, and keen to develop international experience she has also competed in Hong Kong of late.
The reality for Ireland is that there are far more opportunities for medals in the Olympics in the sprint events. The only endurance race where we have a chance is the omnium.
However, with the number of strong young male and female riders being developed at junior and youth levels, there may be a time in the next few years when challenging for medals in the team pursuit at European and World level also becomes a realistic goal.
Javan Nulty and Philip Ryan at last year's National Track Championships; if we gave them a chance to ride for Ireland and got behind them with support, could they compete at, say, the U23 European Track Championships as a starting point?
Sprint potential
Let’s just imagine for a few minutes. Close your eyes and picture Mary Costelloe and Shannon McCurley stepping out onto the track in Rio for the individual sprint, team sprint and the keirin…
Picture Eoin Mullen competing in the sprint and keirin in Rio. And if not for those Games, then picture him, still only in his mid 20s, in his Ireland kit alongside Philip Ryan and another Irish sprinter in the team and individual sprint events in the 2020 Olympics.
And in the aforementioned omnium, while Caroline Ryan and Martyn Irvine are to the fore, there are other possibilities in the shape of Ryan Mullen, Felix English and Lydia Boylan.
And undoubtedly there are other riders out there who feel they could make the cut given track time.
There’s also a clutch of candidates that could play a part in a team pursuit squad.
As well as Mullen and Irvine already within the national track set up, Conor Dunne and Marcus Christie are excellent time trial riders who would be suited to the team pursuit and have experience of it.
And talking of experience in that event; with the Commonwealth Games coming up Sean Downey has recently been riding the track and won a team pursuit bronze medal at the last Commonwealth Games in 2010 in India.
Matt Brammeier also has vast team pursuit experience, much of it with Team GB before declaring for Ireland.
The team pursuit is an event dominated by cycling super powers and it tends to take a good few years to build a successful team pursuit unit within a national set-up.
So with an eye on Rio, it would perhaps be ambitious to think a national pursuit plan could be put together from scratch and an Olympic qualification attempt executed all in the space of two years.
But the number of candidates that would be suited to a team pursuit line-up serves to underline my argument that there are other Irish riders out there who could be brought into the national track fold.
Even away from those competing at Continental level, there are some riders racing in Ireland who could be developed on the track for more modest goals than the Worlds or Olympics.
Javan Nulty of DID Dunboyne, for example, took silver to Irvine in the scratch race at the national championships last year.
Riders like him could perhaps be prepared for an U23 European Track Championships with a view to bigger goals and improving generally as riders, like Irvine has done while in the national track programme.
I use Nulty’s name, not because he is the only domestic road racer who could be developed for an U23 Euros, but simply to demonstrate that the search for those riders who could bolster the Irish track squad does not have to take us far and wide.
The Cycling Ireland track programme is achieving great things with limited budgets and a small squad. But more resources and riders will increase the possibility of Rio medals, and the squads and budgets could be increased immediately even while we wait for an Irish velodrome.
Sean Downey rides on the road for An Post-Chainreaction but are there riders like him under the noses of the national track set up that would improve like Martyn Irvine has if the resources of that set-up were extended to them?
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