Cycling Ireland technical director Brian Nugent said that amongst their peers, the Irish track team is well respected but it was harder to measure what the Irish cycling community wanted from them and the federation
By Brian Canty
Brian Nugent acknowledged that while there was a lot of goodwill from the Irish cycling public towards the high-performance track squad he believes “expectations and what's actually attainable need to be aligned more”.
The federation’s technical director was keen to rid the perception of there being a track and a road programme, but rather stressing they are one mutually beneficial programme which has produced riders like Mark Downey and Ryan Mullen, amongst others.
“I'm not sure what the general public think of us,” he said this week when asked whether he’s aggrieved by a somewhat negative perception.
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“I know there's a lot of goodwill out there and people like to see our sportspeople progress, I know that for sure.
“I'm not sure what the cycling public in Ireland expect, however.
“Maybe the expectations and what's actually attainable need to be aligned more; that is something that we as an organisation can get much better at.
“The perception of the programme appears to be wrong."
He said of Ireland's track riders: “Internationally, among their peers, they are well respected. Teams don’t relish coming up against us because they know how much they’ll fight.
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“The directors and coaches of other nations can’t understand how we are progressing so quickly and how well we are doing with no facilities at home and with so little resources compared to the countries we are competing with.
“And we are getting very close to a lot of (these) very good nations.”
Nugent said among the high points of this last Olympic qualifying campaign was the progress of the women’s team pursuit squad.
“Sixth in the European championships team pursuit and knocking eight seconds of our personal best was great, as was backing it up with ninth in the worlds.
“As well as that, Shannon (McCurley) qualifying for the Olympics was also fantastic and Felix (English) getting so close to medal in Hong Kong," he said in relation to the rider's 4th place in the points race.
The low point of the Olympic cycle was “running out of qualifying events as we got better and better.
“Also, not being recognised as a (high performance) programme that provides similar opportunities to both road and track.
“The track element does require extra investment due to travel outside of Europe and the fact that we have to travel to train, but we are all for developing track and road riders, not one or the other.
“All the public see is the result at a World Cup or World Champs and the amount of spots qualified for Olympics.
“What I can see on a daily basis is hugely satisfying; a team of young, ambitious riders and staff, across the programmes, growing and moving towards their potential and their hunger and desire to learn and improve is what gets me going every day.”
We have another instalment of this interview to follow.
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