Front to back: Dan Martin, Matt Brammeier, Sam Bennett, David McCann (hidden) and Nicolas Roche are all in the Olympic shake-up. Pictured here by Darren Crawford at last year’s national road race championships.
David McCann and Sam Bennett have both moved ahead of Nicolas Roche in Cycling Ireland’s Olympic qualification standings just one day before the window to score points closes, with the three-man team then due to be confirmed next week.
Adam Armstrong’s strong ride in the An Post Ras last week has seen him score both UCI points and points under Cycling Ireland’s qualification scoring system for London – both of which are needed to be eligible for selection.
It means the Eurocycles rider is now under consideration for the Games along with the pro riders.
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Bennett and McCann both scored Cycling Ireland qualification points on a number of stages in last week’s Ras; a UCI 2.2 event in which there were Cycling Ireland Olympic qualification points each day for any Irish rider in the first nine.
Still leading the scoring under Cycling Ireland’s qualification points system is Dan Martin. The Garmin-Barracuda rider now has 81 points, putting him well ahead of the other riders.
Following on from his run of good form – which included a number of podium places both before and during the Ras - An Post-Sean Kelly’s Bennett is now second in the standings on 55 points.
Double Olympian David McCann (RTS Racing) scored points in both the Tour of Korea and the Ras to build a total of 41 points. That total puts him third best in Cycling Ireland’s scoring system.
In fourth position is Nicolas Roche; the Ag2r man having scored 32 points under Cycling Ireland’s scoring system. He had been second in the standings until Bennett and McCann both racked up points at home and abroad over the past month or so.
The only other rider to have scored any points under Cycling Ireland’s scoring criteria this season is Adam Armstrong. His third place on the Ras stage into Killybegs secured for him 13 points. Crucially, for that ride he also picked up UCI ranking points, without which riders will not be considered for selection for London.
While Peter Hawkins placed in the top nine a number of times on stages of the Ras, he has not scored any UCI points and therefore is not eligible to be considered for Olympic selection under Cycling Ireland’s criteria.
Matt Brammeier (Omega Pharma-Quickstep) and Philip Deignan (Unitedhealthcare) both scored UCI points last year meaning they are still eligible for selection. However, since the start of the current season they have failed to secure any results that carry qualification points under the Cycling Ireland scoring system, meaning their selection is unlikely.
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Three tiered
The qualification/selection system for London 2012 is effectively three-tiered. In its criteria published last year, Cycling Ireland stated that only riders who had scored UCI points since the beginning of last year would be eligible for selection.
These riders include: Martin, Roche, Brammeier, Deignan, McCann, Bennett and Armstrong.
The second tier in the process involves Cycling Ireland, under its own scoring system, awarding riders a set number of points for results in UCI-ranked races since the start of this year. It is these points tallies that stickybottle has calculated and has set out above.
The higher a UCI race is ranked, the more points on offer – for top ten placings in one day races and on stages in stage races (except in 2.2 stage races where points are allocated down to 9th place on each stage). There are no Cycling Ireland points for GC placings in UCI ranked stage races.
The third tier for finalising the team involves a selection panel awarding each rider up to 100 points based on their suitability for the London course and their ability to perform.
Whatever three riders have the most points from the Cycling Ireland scoring system and the selector-awarded points combined will be the team for London.
With the points tally so close between Bennett, McCann and Roche, it is how the selectors decide to allocate their points that will determine which one of them misses out. Brammeier, Armstrong and Deignan would need to score a very significant number of points from the selection panel and would then be depending on the other riders being awarded very few points if they were to be picked ahead of them. This is unlikely.
The Olympic selection panel consists of An Post Ras organiser Dermot Dignam, UCI international commissaire Paul Watson and lecturer in Sport & Exercise Physiology at DCU, Dr Giles Warrington. Geoff Liffey, CEO of Cycling Ireland, will act as chairperson of the selection panel.
TT ability does not count for selection
Ireland has qualified three riders for the Olympic road race, one of whom must then ride the time trial just days later. Only those who ride the road race are eligible to ride the TT.
However, stickybottle understands from informed sources that the three-rider Irish team will be picked exclusively on the basis of the road race. It means any of the riders’ time trialling ability will not be taken into account when the selectors are deciding to allocate their all important points to the riders eligible for selection.
The identity of the rider to take Ireland’s one place in the TT will only be considered once the three-man road race team has been picked. A rider’s TT ability will be taken into account at that stage, but it will not help get him onto the three man road team, from which the TT rider must be drawn.
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