Cycling Ireland’s new high performance director, Iain Dyer, has said the selection of national teams to compete in international racing will be based on aspiring to win medals rather than filling the quota of places available to Ireland.
It effectively means selection criteria will be stricter and must be in line with achieving the standard of results that secure funding from Sport Ireland.
Dyer was recruited earlier this year from British Cycling, where he was a key coaching and management figure for over 20 years. During that period British riders emerged as the best in the world on the track and among the best on the road.
He has today outlined his plans for future national team selection as Cycling Ireland has called for expressions of interest from junior and U23 riders for the European Championships, road and track, in Portugal in July.
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“Updating Cycling Ireland’s selection process has been a key piece of work for me in recent months," Dyer said. "It was important to build a robust policy that is underpinned by an effective selection process and has the confidence of our members and stakeholders."
Dyer continued: “I appreciate that everyone was desperate for (new selection criteria) already before I started, but it’s critical we take our time to get it right. We are putting the finishing touches to it currently, however it is important ahead of a major championship like the junior and U23 European Championships that we do this in a timely fashion and mirror the direction of travel we will be taking.
“The key aim of course is we select the best team or individuals we can, however we won’t be selecting riders or teams as a matter of course simply to fulfil entry quotas,” he added, in reference to calls that often come from within the cycling community to select the maximum number of riders permitted in events, especially at the road Worlds and Europeans.
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“The most important thing for ourselves and our funding stakeholders is that our selections are clearly connected to our aspirations to be as medal competitive as possible in major championship events within this Olympic cycle or next. It’s imperative selections can stand up to this scrutiny whether it’s our best young junior riders with their sights set on LA Games in 2028, or our existing elite riders thinking of this years World Championships on their journey towards Paris 2024.
“It is essential that the process stands up to scrutiny. There’s no mystery here; the selection panel will comprise of our coaching staff and independent members where appropriate. It will be chaired by myself, but I will not get to vote on selections, and our new member of staff, Elizabeth our HP administration manager will be note-taker.
“The discipline lead will produce recommendations for the panel to consider, but where that lead has an active coaching role within that cohort or another conflict of interest, they won’t be a voting panel member in that discipline.”
Turning to the call for expressions of interest from juniors and U23s for the European Championships, track and road, Dyer said it was “a shame” that the Europeans fell so close to the Irish championships. This would mean the teams for the Europeans had to be picked before the Irish championships.
“However, we are well into our season now, and unfortunately the logistics that are dependent on selections are one of the biggest operations of the year and take some time to get right. I am confident that by the closing date we will have already seen our best young riders come to the fore however,” he said.
Any rider who wants to express their interest in the Europeans should read the material in the links below and then complete their expression of interest form as soon as possible. The forms should be sent to [email protected] before Wednesday, June 8th.
The European Road & TT Championships for juniors and U23s take place in Anadia, Portugal, from July 7th to 10th. And just four days after those championships conclude, the European Track Championships start – July 14th to 19th – also in Anadia on the 250m velodrome.
Junior & U23 Europeans | The Deets
