Ireland has qualified a total of four places at the Olympic Games on the road next summer, with all of the berths coming in the men’s events.
Cycling Ireland will have three spaces to fill on the Irish team for the road race and one berth in the TT event. However, no women have qualified for the road race or TT.
The men in the contention for places for Ireland will include the big five; Nicolas Roche, Sam Bennett, Dan Martin, Eddie Dunbar and Ryan Mullen.
However, the Tour de France and Olympic Games are relatively
close to each other; the Tour ending on July 19th and the Olympic road race and
TT on July 25th and 29th respectively.
That means it is not a foregone conclusion all of the
Irish World Tour riders will see riding the Olympics as an absolute priority.
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And that may open up the selection to a wider group of
men, though how the selection process will play out in that regard is a
complete unknown at this point.
The road race is a hilly one – some 4,865 metres of
climbing over the 234km route with four main climbs.
The men’s TT is two laps of a 22.1km course with 423
metres of climbing each lap, including one tough incline and another more
gradual one.
The fact the road race is so hilly and the TT is far from flat is also very likely to impact on selection.
Ireland's men's TT place can only be filled by one of the three riders taking part in the road race; another factor that will influence the Irish selection.
Unfortunately the Irish women have not qualified any
places in the women’s road race or TT.
Only 67 women are permitted to take to the start line in
the women’s road race, though there will be a maximum of 130 riders in the men’s
race.
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The allocations for the men’s and women’s road races and
TTs were confirmed today by the UCI and were determined by the World Tour nations’
rankings on October 22nd.
Nations ranked 1-6 qualified five places in the men’s
road race. They are: Belgium, Italy, Netherlands, France Colombia and Spain.
Those nations ranked 7-13 have qualified four men for the
road race. They are: Slovenia, Germany, Australia, Denmark, Great Britain,
Norway and Switzerland.
Countries ranked 14-21, which included Ireland in 16th place, have been allocated three places in the men’s road race.
They are: Austria, Poland, Ireland, Russia, South Africa,
Kazakhstan, Canada and Czech Republic.
Countries ranked from 22nd to 32nd get two places in the men’s road race and those from ranked from 33rd to 50th each get one place.
The full breakdown of allocated places for the men’s road race and TT can be found at this link.
In the women’s events, nations had to be in the top 22 on October 22nd to qualify.
There are three bands of qualifying nations; those ranked
1st to 5th get four road race places, those nations in the 6th to 13th bracket
are allocated three places and countries from 14th to 22nd get two places.
Like the men’s TT, only nations who qualify for the road
race are allocated places, either one or two, in the women’s race against the
clock.
Ireland was ranked 53rd nation in the women’s rankings meaning we were well outside qualifying for the road race and TT.
The full allocation to all nations for the women’s road race and TT can be found by following this link.
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