Ireland’s World Championship rider quotas revealed for elite, U23 & junior races

L to R: Brammeier, McCann, Roche and Martin at the Worlds in Copenhagen last year (Photo: Gary McIlroy)

Ireland has secured three places for the elite men’s road race at the World Championships in Valkenberg, Holland, next month, with the U23 riders going one better and securing four spots.

The quotas for all nations have been revealed this afternoon, Friday, by the UCI.

The elite men have qualified three riders for the road race by virtue of the fact that Dan Martin is in the top 100 riders in the world – currently in 28^th place.

Ireland is 17^th in the WorldTour nations’ rankings and so is well out of the top ten placings needed to qualify a large team.

However, any nation with a rider in the top 100 in the individual rider rankings is given three Worlds road places, with Martin’s position securing those slots.

The U23 men’s team has done a good job in recent months, not only to guarantee their qualification but also to climb the rankings and secure an additional place in the road race.

Back in June Ireland had slipped to 26^th place in the UCI’s U23 European nations rankings and as such occupied the last qualification slot for the Worlds.

If that position had fallen by even one placing, the U23s would not have qualified for the Worlds. Since then Sean Downey, Philip Lavery and Sam Bennett have all ridden very well and gained more points for Ireland.

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When the July rankings were published, Ireland had jumped to 21^st – with those countries ranked from 21^st to 26^th all set to qualify a three-man road team for the Worlds.

However, over the past month the U23s have scored further points, with Ireland now ranked 19^th in the UCI’s European rankings and securing four slots for Valkenberg. Great Britain finished 23^rd in the rankings and only secured three places for the road race, once less than Ireland.

The qualification cut off date was Wednesday, meaning the position riders and nations were in on that date decided the size of each country’s teams for Worlds. The details were published today.

Ireland, like all nations, has two berths in the men’s U23 and elite TTs. There is no qualification system for those places and no necessity on the TT places to be filled by riders also riding the road race, as was the case with the Olympics.

Apart from the elite and U23 men qualifying teams, Ireland can also field a team in other Worlds races without having to qualify. These categories include: elite women, and the male and female junior races.

In the women’s elite road race any nation can start three riders and in the TT can field two riders. In the junior male road race all nations can have a three-rider team and can also have two riders in the TT. In the female junior road race, all nations can have a four-rider team and can have two riders in the TT.

While the quotas for the road races and TTs for the elite men and women, U23 men and junior males will be filled by Cycling Ireland, it is unclear how many of the four places available in the junior female road race will be filled.

In summary, the following are the quotas for Ireland for the Worlds.