A large Irish national team has been selected for track racing in Belgium over the Easter Bank Holiday weekend. The line-up to take on the Belgian Track International is made up of junior, U23 and elite riders, with that mixed team packing a lot of firepower.
This latest national team has been named at a time when our top international riders have been enjoying considerable success, with Lara Gillespie (UAE Team ADQ) flying since the start of the year, Sam Bennett (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) having won four races this season and with Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost), Seth Dunwoody (Bahrain Victorious Development) and Mia Griffin (Roland) all claiming wins in the last week.
“The Belgian International is always one of the most competitive and best supported races on the track calendar and this year is no different with 266 riders from 23 different countries on the start list," said Cycling Ireland head coach Dan Henchy.
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"It’s an event where the senior and junior riders get to compete side by side. To have our Olympians and pathway riders sharing a pit and learning from each other is a valuable opportunity. We’ll be looking for some strong performances as we build towards the championship events in the second half of 2025.”
Gillespie and Griffin - two of the riders who rode the team pursuit at the Paris Olympics for Ireland last year - are among the 11 selected for Belgium this weekend. They are joined on the team by Erin Creighton and Emma Jeffers, two young riders who are well placed to move up a notch in the national team set-up in the future.
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Creighton (McConvey Cycles), a former junior international who was 4th in the elimination race at the junior Worlds two years ago, was the team pursuit reserve rider for Paris last year. Jeffers (Liv AlUla Jayco), who has declared for Ireland in recent months, has already enjoyed considerable success racing in Britain and is one to watch.
Stefan Caulfield-Dreier (CT GIANT Store Assen-NWVG) and Oisin Ferrity (Caldwell Cycles), both U23 riders, will compete in the elite men's events for Ireland this weekend. Caulfield-Dreier, who has been road racing in Europe since last year, represented Ireland on the track in 2024.
Ferrity will be making the step up on the track this weekend, though the former Irish junior road race champion has already competed for Ireland on the road at the European Junior Championships and won the road race at the Junior Commonwealth Games two years ago riding for Northern Ireland.
Rhiannon Dolan is another who returns to the Irish jersey this weekend having ridden the junior Worlds in China last year. She will team up with fellow junior Mya Doocey, a really promising rider who was also selected for the Worlds but missed out due to injury.
The new junior men's national pursuit line-up will also compete in Belgium this weekend and is comprised of Max Fitzgerald, Philip O’Connor, George Sevastopolu and Elliot McKeegan. Racing gets underway on Friday April 18th and will run right through to Sunday April 20th.
