The squad training in Co Wicklow
Cycling Ireland has confirmed the line-up of the new youth female Talent Team 2020 following the launch of the male equivalent a couple of months ago.
Included are twenty one girls, aged from 12 to 16 years. The squad has already met up in recent weeks but its final line-up has only just been confirmed (see list below).
Cycling Ireland issued an invitation to young riders to apply for the Talent Team 2020 concept in September and it was initially envisaged the squad would be mixed gender.
However, such was the level of interest that the association decided to form two separate squads; male and female.
The leaders of Cycling Ireland's overall development project are coaches Martin O’Loughlin and Paddy Doran.
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The female squad is being guided by three women who have been central to the development of women's cycling in recent years, namely Orla Hendron, Gillian McDarby and Valerie Considine.
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The Talent Team 2020 concept will aim to engage talented youths with the national set-up and nurture them through to international level at junior ranks.
The process is seeking to mirror development programmes in nations like Great Britain and Australia, where talent has been identified at a very early age and is now yielding spectacular results at junior, U23 and elite levels.
Cycling Ireland said Talent Team 2020 was being established to smooth the transition “of our brightest prospects born in 1995 from the youth to junior ranks, where they will then hopefully join the junior development programme” already in existence.
The second goal is to identify “Ireland’s most talented cyclists born in the years 1996 to 1999 and offer them specialist support to achieve their potential along a high performance development pathway”.
The eldest of the riders selected for Talent Team 2020 will be 25-year-olds when the Olympics are held in 2020. The youngest of the riders will be 21-year-olds in that Olympic year.
Female Talent Team 2020
Aoife Cameron (Mitchell (Ballymoney CC)
Caitie O’Hagan (Ballymoney CC)
Caoimhe Ivory (Bray Wheelers)
Deirbhle Ivory (Bray Wheelers)
Ellen McAree (Ballymoney CC)
Emily Birchall (Fermoy)
Hayley Priestley (Banbridge CC)
Jennifer Neenan (Usher IRC)
Joelene Francis (Longford)
Kayleigh Gibbons (Lucan CRC)
Laura Cooke (Limerick CC)
Leah Maunsell (Team Ballyhoura)
Michelle Mullins (SERC)
Naoise Sheridan (Orwell)
Rachel Kaye-Mellor (Orwell)
Rebecca Heaney (SERC)
Roisin Carter (North Pole CC)
Shannon Buller (Banbridge CC)
Sheena McKiverigan (Banbridge CC)
Autumn Collins (Cycling Pursuits)
Edel Burke (Innishfree)
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