Sam Bennett on his way to winning Euro points gold in 2008
Olympian and former national road race champion, David O’Loughlin has informed Cycling Ireland he will no longer try and qualify for the London Olympics.
His move leaves wide open the reserve slot for the track if Martyn Irvine qualifies a place for Ireland in the omnium.
It means An Post-Sean Kelly’s Sam Bennett, who has won a European title on the track, could now become Irvine’s reserve for London.
O’Loughlin late last year came out of international track retirement in an effort to qualify for the Olympics. In October he made the final of the points race at the European Track Championships in Holland.
He then rode well in a number of Revolution track meetings on the Manchester velodrome for his Cunga trade team.
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In November he travelled to the World Cup meeting in Astana, Kazakhstan, where he made the scratch final and finished 12th of 24 riders.
He had initially intended to continue riding international meetings in a bid to see if he could challenge Irvine for a place in London for the omnium.
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However, he did not ride the Beijing World Cup meeting last month and has now informed Cycling Ireland that he has formally opted out of trying to get to London.
If Irvine stays in the top eight in the EU rankings after the upcoming London World Cup and World Track Championships in Australia in April, he will qualify for the London Olympics.
However, he will qualify a place for Ireland and will not be automatically entitled to be selected himself.
In theory, O’Loughlin could have hit top form in the next few months and forced the selectors to pick him if Irvine did indeed qualify Ireland only for his form to then dip.
While this was very unlikely – particularly when Irvine keeps getting stronger – there was a slim chance it might happen.
At the very least, O’Loughlin would have been first reserve to Irvine for the Olympics. However, having now told Cycling Ireland he is out of the race, the track reserve slot for London is wide open should Irvine qualify.
It means 2008 European junior points race champion Sam Bennett may now be first reserve on the track.
Also in the mix would most likely be David McCann. However, he has a very realistic chance of being picked for both the elite road race and TT and, having already gone to two Olympics, the issue of him being a reserve will probably not arise.
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