Brammeier up the road in January’s Tour Down Under
Following the failure of Matt Brammeier to secure a place on the Irish Olympic team and his decision to appeal the selection, cycling journalist Brian Canty here explains why he believes the wrong team has been pick. He also sets out the case for Brammeier’s inclusion in the three-man line-up.
The recent exclusion of Matt Brammeier from the three-man Irish cycling team for the road race at the London Olympics has provoked much debate.
Dan Martin (Garmin-Barracuda), Nicolas Roche (AG2R La Mondiale) and David McCann (RTS-Racing) have been selected to represent Ireland. And as it stands, unless Brammeier’s appeal is successful, those three will travel to London.
Martin is set to make his Olympic debut while both Roche and McCann have ridden the Olympics road race before; McCann having done so twice.
Advertisement
But Brammeier is set to lose out. And he’s not even named as a reserve, with that slot going to young Carrick-on-Suir sprinter Sam Bennett.
The wrong team, in my opinion, has been selected. Brammeier has every right to feel aggrieved. The scoring process under which Cycling Ireland awarded qualification points for results – as well as selectors awarding further points – was fundamentally flawed. But that’s for another day.
Each rider eligible for selection ticks certain boxes. But Brammeier surely ticks enough to warrant inclusion. It seems laughable that though he has beaten Roche and Martin in head-to-head clashes (National championships of 2010 and 2011), he is deemed surplus to requirements. That’s not to say his inclusion should see either axed. Instead, I believe it is McCann who should not go.
McCann has been one of the true greats of Irish cycling and has done all he is likely to do in his career. Though he turned 39 years in March, he has shown there’s plenty of thread left on the tyre with some sterling rides on the Asian circuit this year as well as in the Rás last month — a race he has already won in the past.
Related News
But what McCann could do at the Olympics, Brammeier could do too. They’d perform similarly in the time trial, though this doesn’t matter anyway because none of the riders’ time trialling ability was considered under Cycling Ireland’s selection criteria. But when it comes to the road race; why not give someone like Brammeier, a much younger guy, a shot?
McCann is coming towards the end of his glittering career. But Brammeier is still trying to build his. A good Olympic performance with the eyes of the world on the Games would mean far more to him than McCann.
Bennett too, it has to be said, is also unlucky to lose out because he is the best sprinter of the lot. In my opinion, he would have the best chance of a result if it came down to a sprint because there’s no better galloper in the country right now. He finished 15th behind Cav in that memorable 2009 stage of the Tour of Ireland into Killarney though still a teenager.
Too often I feel common sense is ignored in situations like this. And though there has to be some criteria; that criteria could and maybe should be based on a suitability test. But the situation becomes more complex when you factor in that Dan Martin and Nicolas Roche are both on hefty Olympic funding. It would be outrageous if they didn’t go, given they’re on €40,000 and €20,000 respectively.
Brammeier is tough. This is the man who was run over by a cement truck five years ago while out training and spent four months learning to walk again. He moved back into his home-place in Lincoln and got around using a Zimmer frame. He learnt to walk, then pedal, then pedal fast; fast enough for the Profel Ziegler Continental team in Belgium to snap him up before Sean Kelly saw him and took him on board for a couple of seasons, during which he excelled.
He later went to the biggest team in the world - HTC-Highroad – before it disbanded. He then secured a contract with the second best team in the world after Team Sky; Omega Pharma QuickStep. Another reason I like him is his versatility. He can sprint, climb and time-trial.
Last year he won the elite national time trial championships, which is arguably his best discipline having claimed the British U23 title some years back. And following the win in his adopted country, Brammeier then beat Dan Martin to make it two national titles in as many days when he also took the road race crown in Monaghan almost 12 months ago.
Brammeier is a loyal domestique and his job at Omega Pharma-Quickstep is to make life as easy as possible for the team leaders there. He has done all that’s been asked of him by his team but unfortunately, this doesn’t dovetail with the scoring system outlined by Cycling Ireland.
Surely a dispensation can be made for him.
Note from the publishers: Like any opinion piece published on stickybottle, the views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the publishers.
Topics
