London’s Olympic velodrome: Will Martyn Irvine be one of the chosen few?
With just over seven months remaining before the London Olympics, the selection race for Irish cyclists is already well underway.
Cycling Ireland has just unveiled official selection criteria that promise to bring about a nail-biting contest to fill the men’s road places.
The just-published criteria set out by Cycling Ireland for all of the events are lengthy and very detailed. We’ve decided to take each event and outline to you the key points and most likely selections.
Men’s Road Race & TT
Ireland has qualified three places on the road and one in the TT.
Dan Martin, now ranked 9th in the world, has been funded to the tune of €40,000 as a potential medallist and barring injury his name will be the first on the team sheet for the road race.
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Nicolas Roche, who has been funded to the tune of €20,000 as a world class athlete, will without question be the next name on the road team sheet.
With those two guaranteed a place as long as they are healthy, that just leaves one road place with apparently two men fighting for it; Vuelta stage winner Philip Deignan and national road and TT champion Matt Brammeier.
Cycling Ireland has said in its just-published criteria that it will not consider riders who do not have UCI ranking points.
Philip Deignan secured some points for his second place on a stage at the Tour of Beijing and so his eligibility is already in place.
Matt Brammeier has no points at the moment so he must clock some up in the early months of the next season to put himself in the mix.
If Brammeier fails to score points then it is almost certain the third place on the road will go to Deignan, who has already been to the Beijing Olympics.
However, if Brammeier scores some points a betting man would have to say he looks likely to get the nod over Deignan, in part because of the way the criteria work.
While Ireland has one place in the TT, that must be filled by one of the three riders who rides the road race.
Brammeier is the national TT champion and his track record in the discipline, going back many years, may see him secure the third road place because he would then be eligible to ride the TT days later.
However, Deignan is Ireland’s great unfulfilled talent and stickybottle has a feeling that 2012 – as a team leader with Unitedhealthcare - is going to be his big year, so Brammeier definitely has a battle on his hands.
Deignan has more natural ability than Brammeier but frustratingly has rarely fulfilled it.
But Brammeier is a much better tester and he is likely to have a very good year at Omega Pharma-Quickstep having now gotten a full season in the pro peloton under his belt. So his selection for the road for London would be merit-based, and not only because he can time trial.
Aside from the big four, riders like David McCann and even Sam Bennett cannot be discounted – with both eligible for UCI points on the Asian and U23 circuits respectively.
McCann has done it all before in terms of Olympic selection and has been one of the best and most consistent servants Irish cycling has ever had.
On his day he is most definitely well capable of beating Brammeier in a TT even though he is a near veteran. Still a force to be reckoned with, he certainly cannot be ruled out of getting to another Olympics.
Like Brammeier, he would be of real assistance to Martin or Roche in the road race. He would put in as good a performance as Brammeier in the TT, or go close to it. His age (he is 39 in March) and the fact he is riding on the weaker Asian circuit look likely to count against him.
Bennett is more of an outside chance than McCann, but he is on the provisional short list of six riders for the Games.
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Now going into his last year as an U23, he needs a few breakthrough rides this season to move up from Continental level at An Post-Sean Kelly. Any such breakthrough, if spectacular enough, may bring with it a place at the Olympics.
Women’s Road & TT
Any Irish woman hoping for selection will need to be in the top 100 in the world next May to qualify Ireland a place at the Games under the criteria set down by the UCI.
On the face of it, this appears a tall order even though Siobhan Horgan and Caroline Ryan both have modest UCI points.
However, Cycling Ireland told stickybottle that some nations who secure a number of female places may not field full teams in London.
These unfilled places would be allocated by a special international selection commission to those nations that have not qualified any places. This could leave the door open for Irish women both in the road and TT events. The women’s allocations will not be decided until next May.
National TT and track champion Caroline Ryan has been riding the international track circuit of late; at first as part of the women’s pursuit team that has now given up on qualifying for London, and more recently as an individual.
She would be hot favourite for selection if Ireland secured a place in the TT.
National road champion Siobhan Dervan-Horgan rode well in the World Championships in Copenhagen in September until a mechanical ended her race and she would most likely get any spot on the road team.
Olivia Dillon is riding on the US circuit and would also be very much in the hunt given her dominant performances on the home scene in recent years when she has raced here.
Michelle Geoghegan is returning from injury and will be riding with her new Belgian Steeds-Vooraan team in 2012. She would also be in the mix for a road place but realistically is third in the queue.
Track
The only event Ireland is trying to qualify a place in is the men’s omnium.
Martyn Irvine is currently ranked 9th in Europe in that event. If he can nudge up one place to 8th or higher, then he will automatically qualify Ireland an Olympic place in that event.
It is not a foregone conclusion that Irvine will get the place in London, even though it is his ranking points that would have qualified Ireland.
Former road race champion and track Olympian in Beijing, David O’Loughlin is out of international retirement and will be eligible for selection.
However, it would require some massive performances from the Mayo man in the final two World Cup meetings in the months ahead in London and Beijing or at the World Track Championships in Australia in April for him to get the nod over Irvine.
BMX
In the BMX event, former UK No 1 Kelvin Batey, who has just declared for Ireland, is in with a very good chance of getting to London. He qualified a place for GB at the last Olympics but was unable to take it because of injury.
Because Ireland is a fledgling nation in BMX, Irish riders do not have to reach the standard of stronger nations in order to qualify for London. Batey would probably only need to get to the quarter finals at the World Championships in Birmingham in May to secure a spot for London 2012. He tells us he thinks he can do it.
For the full and official criteria for all events click here:
http://www.cyclingireland.ie/Home/News/Olympic-Criteria.aspx
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