Cycling Ireland has said its off-road commission, and not its high performance unit, decided that an Irish team would not go to the European Cyclocross Championships in Belgium early next month. It added no decision had been made on sending a team to the World Cyclocross Championships in the Netherlands.
A team could be selected for the Worlds if riders met performance criteria and if sending a team was deemed a priority in the 2023 off-road budget, Cycling Ireland said. Stickybottle first reported yesterday no Irish team was being sent to the Europeans and there were doubts about whether a team would go to the Worlds, in Hoogerheide in February.
It was unclear yesterday if the reason for not sending a team to the Europeans, and uncertainty around a Worlds team, was financial - as was the case when no Irish team was sent to the World Road Championships in September in Australia - or based on performance thresholds not being met.
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Cycling Ireland has now effectively said it was a combination of both; with Irish teams set to be sent to race abroad based on value for money. This would include their medal-winning chances, Olympic and Paralympic success or qualifying and key development aims.
In a statement today about the cyclocross Europeans and Worlds, the national governing body focused largely on making a distinction between its high performance unit and its off road commission.
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It goes to great lengths to point out its high performance unit is separate to its off road commission. Based on that separation, Cycling Ireland says, it was clear the decision not to send a team to the cyclocross Europeans is unrelated to the decision not to send an Irish team to the road Worlds.
"It is important to note that decisions on attendance at international level cyclo-cross events are made by the Cycling Ireland off-road commission and not by the Cycling Ireland high-performance unit," Cycling Ireland said in its statement.
"As such, the decision not to send a team to the European Championships is separate and unrelated to the Cycling Ireland high-performance unit’s decision to forgo attendance at the 2022 UCI Road World Championships.
"As previously communicated, it is not a given that Cycling Ireland’s high-performance unit, which oversees the Olympic disciplines of road, track, para and BMX freestyle park, will attend every event qualified for or take up all allocated quota slots.
"The off-road commission has worked closely with Cycling Ireland’s high-performance unit and is aligned with the wider high-performance approach on the need to demonstrate value for money and ensure investment is linked closely to medal winning opportunities, a qualifying process, Olympic or Paralympic success, or key development aims. It is these principles that has driven the decision in relation to the European Championships by the off-road commission."
Cycling Ireland added selection criteria for the cyclocross Worlds will be published by its off-road commission in early November. Furthermore, the decision to send a team to the Worlds, or not, would be made by its off-road commission "based on rider eligibility and the prioritisation of the 2023 off-road commission budget".
