McCann flat out in the Olympic TT – says the Irish could have been more aggressive in road race
David McCann has defended the performance of the three-man Irish Olympic road race team saying it “wasn’t as simple as all that” to make the decisive breakaways. However, he accepted Ireland should have been represented in the large escape from which the race was won.
McCann, the only Irish rider to compete in both the road race and the time trial (TT) in London, told stickybottle that a lot of riders and nations believed until too late in the road race that the field would regroup.
He added that from the outset his role was to ride in support of Dan Martin and Nicolas Roche and he felt he had done his job.
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“It was very pushy in the bunch, that was probably hard for people to see fully on the TV and there were crowds all over the roads so it was dangerous. If you wanted to get clear on the hill it was a case of pushing and battling for position. There were several times I got to the front to find the lads weren’t able to follow me through. It was risky.”
“The plan was to get into the breaks on the hill. I don’t think (missing the key moves) was down to legs or form. It was pushy all the way, the roads were narrow. And even though 60 guys or more are all fighting to be at the front, when the width of the roads can only take three riders no matter how hard you fight 50 guys are going to end up disappointed.”
When the decisive moves came, particularly last time up Box Hill, McCann said it came down a question of those who had fought to be near the front and had succeeded in that regard getting clear.
“When the last Spaniards got across to the move, we were all well up the bunch on the right side, and itching to go but we were just those few places too far back that made it impossible to get out. I think anyone that has raced a lot knows that frustration.”
However, he pointed out that the Irish trio were not alone in being left behind, saying a lot of very strong teams found themselves out of position at the moment of maximum opportunity.
He said he felt very strong on the day of the road race last Saturday fortnight and that in hindsight, with Roche and Martin failing to make it into the winning escape, he might have been better targeting a result of his own.
“But it is easy to say that looking back. A lot of people thought it was going to come back. So it’s easy to talk in hindsight I guess. Riding for our strongest guy makes sense.”
The three riders all finished in the bunch with McCann the best of them in 55th place.
In the days after the road race, the Belfast man rode the individual TT and said while he felt good the day immediately before the test, he did not feel as fresh on the morning of the race.
“Maybe the road race did take a bit more out of me than I thought but the other guys were in the road race as well….. Maybe I needed a bit more stage racing in the build up.”
He said his TT preparation in London was not aided by what he called “organisational stress” in the couple of days before the test. This included the late arrival of his skinsuit the night before the race, the Irish set-up changing locations and also changing masseur.
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“But I guess if you go really well, then all that’s forgotten about. Looking at the power output, I was about 30 watts off where I wanted to be. I’d do over 400 watts over a one hour effort like that. But I was a good bit off that.”
Having finished in the top ten in the World Time Trial Championships in the past, while he felt he had not performed to his best in the London TT he felt his 27th place on the day “wasn’t the worst result in the world”.
“But when you’ve been top 10, you’re naturally disappointed with anything less than top nine”.
While he effectively announced his retirement from international cycling immediately after the London TT, he said he is continuing to train and has some team commitments remaining with his professional RTS Racing squad; the Tour of Hainan in China in October being the key fixture.
Because his season will go on that long, he has not ruled out being selected for the World Road Race Championships in Valkenberg next month, where the Irish elite men will have berths in both the road race and the TT.
“I wouldn’t go just for the sake of it, I’d have to be hitting the numbers in training that I’d need to go and get a serious result.”
Looking beyond the end of the season, he says with three young children and ambitions to coach, international racing will not be on the agenda. However, he doesn’t expect to get any less enjoyment from cycling next year of thereafter and will continue to race in domestic events “for fun”, before adding that he might ride the An Post Rás again.
“Having said that, with the extra coaching I have just taken on I can already see that you can get very, very busy. And any free time I have will have to be for family now.”
Having built a formidable reputation both domestically and internationally and won a string of UCI ranked races through his career, McCann is known for his meticulous preparation and his ability to get the most out of himself and to peak for key events.
It’s a combination that will see the path to his door being a very well beaten one by those seeking coaching expertise.
He feels moving into coaching will become a full time job and says he has a number of very good riders already under his wing.
“If they want to say that I coach them then that’s fine with me, but it’s not up to me to name names,” he said. “Up to now, the only category I haven’t coached a rider to a national championship medal in is the one that I race in myself! And I intend to add that one to the list by June next year.”
“I had to offload a good few people that I was coaching because with getting to the Olympics this year being the aim, and the new baby being born in January I knew I just wouldn’t have the time to coach them properly. So it’s exciting now to be able to do that again, and take my service up a level.”
“I get great satisfaction from helping people, seeing an improvement in people and seeing them get results. Riders know now that it’s absolutely vital to do it properly. I can see it; riders who learned and improved more in three months with targeted coaching than they had in the previous three years without.”
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