Brammeier takes the national road race crown again yesterday (Photo: Brendan Slattery)
An appeal by national road race champion Matt Brammeier (Omega Pharma-Quickstep) to his non-selection for the Olympics was lodged today, Monday, with the Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI).
The national executive of the OCI was due to meet in Dublin this evening, where Brammeier’s appeal was one of a number of matters down for discussion.
Stickybottle understands the appeal is a lengthy one – contained in a document running to some 50 pages. It is also a “legal appeal” meaning it has been prepared and submitted on his behalf by a lawyer.
Because of that, the OCI must take legal advice before it discusses and votes on the matter. It is unclear how long that will take, though the issue could be resolved within a week.
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Brammeier is being represented by UCI-registered cycling agent Andrew McQuaid, who is also registered in the US to practice law.
Brammeier was one of seven Irish riders to score UCI points since the start of last year; the key criteria for eligibility for Olympic selection.
However, he failed to score any points under a second-tier Olympic selection system set out by Cycling Ireland which operated from the start of this season until the end of May.
Under that system, riders were awarded points for results in UCI races; with points being slightly higher for harder races.
Of those selected for London on the three-man team or as reserve, Dan Martin topped the Cycling Ireland points scale with 81 points. Sam Bennett was next on 55, David McCann scored 41 and Nicolas Roche 32.
Brammeier had no results in UCI races when the scoring window closed and so scored no points.
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A three-man selection panel appointed by Cycling Ireland met in early June and awarded each rider a score out of 100 based on their suitability for the London road race and their ability to perform in it. The selectors were not permitted to take the riders’ TT ability into account, just their road racing ability.
The points awarded by the selectors to each rider were then added to the points each rider had scored for themselves. The three riders with the highest combined scores (Martin, McCann and Roche) were named on the team and the rider with the fourth highest score (Bennett) was named as reserve.
Because Brammeier went into the final stage of the process – the selector points’ allocation – having earned no results-based points of his own while others had scored reasonable tallies, it meant he effectively had a mountain to climb to be selected and in the end fell short.
He appealed his non selection to Cycling Ireland. An appeals committee met and upheld his appeal. This meant the original three-man selection panel had to be reconvened and were obliged to revisit the selection process.
When they did this, they decided to pick the same three riders with Bennett still the reserve. It meant Brammeier was still out in the cold.
He has now taken his case to the OCI. He believes that because he rides effectively two divisions higher than both McCann and Bennett the results that saw them selected are simply not comparable to the work he does for Omega Pharma-Quickstep.
His OCI appeal is a very interesting move that has been tried – with both success and failure – by athletes from other sports in the past.
The riders being sent to the Olympics are not being sent by Cycling Ireland. The riders are part of a wider Ireland team which is being sent by the OCI. It means the OCI is always the final arbitrator on selection.
It is open to the OCI to abide by Cycling Ireland’s criteria and bring the riders to London that have been nominated by Cycling Ireland. Or, they could set aside Cycling Ireland’s criteria and decide that Brammeier should be in the team irrespective of who scored more points under Cycling Ireland’s criteria.
When contacted by stickybottle, Andrew McQuaid said because the process was ongoing he could not comment. A spokesman for the OCI confirmed an appeal had been lodged and that legal advice must now be sought. However, he was unable to say when a decision might be arrived at.
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