By Graham Healy
Following on from his impressive results in the Ardennes, Dan Martin (Garmin Barracuda) has now risen to 12th in the UCI World Tour rankings with 132 points. Tom Boonen (Omega Pharma-Quickstep) continues to lead, with 366 points.
Martin’s points tally means Ireland is now in an impressive 9th position in the nations’ rankings; improving from 17th position previously. Ireland is now ahead of more powerful cycling nations including France, Germany, Kazakhstan and Great Britain.
Ironically, Martin left the Great Britain set-up a number of years ago as he felt he was not receiving the support he required; with his points now having pushed Great Britain outside the top ten for now.
Martin is the sole Irish points scorer so far this season. He will hope to return to the Ardennes later this year to take part in the World Championships in Limburg, where many – including himself – will be expecting a big result.
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The number of starters Ireland can enter in the Worlds can be quite difficult to determine because there are qualification routes through both the UCI World Tour and the UCI European Tour.
However, the qualification scenarios for Ireland can be summarised as follows:
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The first ten countries in the UCI World Tour rankings on August 15th, 2012, can name 14 riders on its Worlds long list with nine to start.
However, a nation in the top ten but with fewer than nine riders classified in the individual UCI World Tour ranking, would not be eligible to start the full nine riders. If they have eight riders with UCI points they can start eight in the Worlds; if they have seven riders with World Tour points they will field and team of seven and if they have only six riders with points, their Worlds team will only number six riders. But that is where the sliding scale stops.
Irrespective of the number of riders that countries have with UCI points, once a nation is in the top ten in the nations’ rankings they will be guaranteed six starters in the Worlds.
It means if Ireland were to stay in the top ten in the nations rankings largely based on Martin’s points; even if only one or two other Irish riders (or even no other Irish riders) scored UCI World Tour points during the season, Ireland would still be entitled to field six riders in the Worlds.
However, it will be a very big ask for Ireland to remain in the top ten of the World Tour until August.
Ireland can also qualify riders for the Worlds through the UCI Europe Tour route. The first six nations in that ranking on August 15th, 2012 – excluding those nations already qualified via the World Tour – can start six riders in the Worlds. The nations ranked from 7th to 16th can start three riders.
Irish riders had yet to score any points in the UCI Europe Tour until yesterday when Sam Bennett finished 3rd in the Ronde van Noord Holland.
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