Without Deignan's UCI Beijing points, Ireland would qualify only two for Olympic RR
The Irish national team’s entitlement to four places in the men’s elite road race at the London Olympics next summer has been scuppered by a little-known UCI clause.
It also appears that Ireland may not qualify any riders for the men's time trial (TT) at the Games.
Cycling Ireland had initially anticipated that Dan Martin’s ninth place in the end of year UCI rankings would have qualified four riders for London.
Under the normal course of events that high placing by any rider would have automatically qualified his nation four places for an Olympic road race. However, a problem arises because only three Irish riders have scored UCI ranking points this year.
Under a little-known UCI rule known as “the Luxembourg clause”, a nation cannot qualify more riders for the Olympics than feature in the UCI world rankings.
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This is designed to stop weak nations with one or two exceptional riders – the Schleck brothers from Luxembourg – qualifying a large number of riders for the road race even though only their one or two exceptional riders are of world class standard.
It means that even though Dan Martin finished high enough in the rankings to technically qualify four Irish riders from London only he, Nicolas Roche and Philip Deignan scored UCI ranking points this year so Ireland can only qualify a maximum of three riders for London.
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Philip Deignan scored his only UCI ranking points of the year at the Tour of Beijing just before the close of season. Under the so-called Luxembourg clause, if he had not scored those points Ireland would only be eligible for two places for the Olympic road race.
The position in relation to the Olympic men's TT is very confusing. Cycling Ireland was unable to clarify for stickybottle how many riders, if any, Ireland will qualify for the London TT.
The allocation of Olympic road and TT places will be confirmed by the UCI next Tuesday, November 1st.
If no riders qualify for the TT, Ireland will only have three places on the road in the men’s event. It is understood Cycling Ireland will have the option of sending a woman to the elite women’s road race.
The only other possible places Irish cyclists may secure at the Games are on the track.
In-form Martyn Irvine is currently ranked 11th in Europe in the omnium. If he manages to score enough points in the upcoming four World Cup meetings and World Championships next April to move him into 8th or higher in the European rankings, he will qualify Ireland one place in the event for the Olympics.
David O’Loughlin has come out of retirement and will ride the four World Cup meetings – two in the last months of this year and two in the early months of next year – for his Cunga trade team in an effort to score points in the omnium towards qualifying for London.
But even if Ireland gets enough qualification points, there will only be one place in that event for an Irish rider at the Olympics.
The woman’s team pursuit trio of Caroline Ryan, Ciara Horne and Sinead Jennings are also planning to ride the World Cups in the hunt for points to qualify for London.
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