Front to back: Dan Martin, Matt Brammeier, Sam Bennett, David McCann (hidden) and Nicolas Roche were all in the Olympic shake-up. Pictured here by Darren Crawford at last year’s national road race championships.
As the debate continues around the selection for the Olympic Games, Stickybottle outlines why we believe the selectors got it exactly right by picking Dan Martin, Nicolas Roche and David McCann.
Irish road riders had to jump three fences to be selected for the Olympic Games. Firstly, they had to have scored UCI points since the beginning of last year.
Once these were in the bag – they then moved into what was effectively the next round of the selection process.
They could then score points for placings in UCI-ranked races under an Olympic qualification points system set out by Cycling Ireland since the start of the current season.
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Then when the window for scoring those points closed on May 31st, a three-man selection panel met. They awarded each rider eligible for selection a score of up to 100 points each, based on their suitability for the London road race course and on their ability to compete in the race.
The individual Cycling Ireland Olympic points totals and the selectors’ points tallies were then combined for each rider and those three riders with the highest scores were picked for London.
From the outset, the system of awarding Cycling Ireland points looked unusual. For example, a stage win the Ras was worth 32 points; the same for fourth in a WorldTour one-day classic road race. It clearly favoured those riding at Continental level. But in the end that made no difference at all – a point we’ll explore further down.
First, let’s consider the case for Matt Brammeier.
The argument in favour of selecting Matt Brammeier runs something like this; he is one of only three Irish riders competing at the very highest level – a domestique, capable of taking his own chances, in one of the biggest teams in the world. Therefore, irrespective of how many placings other Irish riders get in smaller races, he is still in the top three riders in the country and should be picked.
But let’s consider that logic for a second.
If we all accepted it, Cycling Ireland could have picked the team last autumn when it became clear what trade teams the top Irish riders would be competing with in 2012. There are only three places on the team for London and only three Irish riders competing at the highest level, so the team would have very neatly picked itself.
This would have had the effect (before the season even started) of casting aside from the selection process every single Irish rider apart from the trio in the ProTour teams; Brammeier, Martin and Roche.
Martin is now one of the best riders in the world and had scored most Cycling Ireland points under the criteria so he simply had to be picked. Roche, irrespective of his modest form and results over the past 18 months, is still the second best rider Ireland has. Unlike Brammeier or Philip Deignan, he also scored Cycling Ireland qualification points so he put himself in the mix.
The fact that Roche scored just 32 Cycling Ireland points – against Bennett’s 55 and McCann’s 41 – obviously didn’t deter the selectors, who looked at his experience and track record and awarded him a healthy points tally that bumped him into the top three riders.
While it is by no means clear that Roche was selected ahead of David McCann – for the reasons outlined above, we believe Martin and Roche were definites for London.
So let’s now examine the merits of the other five men who had scored UCI points since the start of last year and so were eligible for London; David McCann, Matt Brammeier, Sam Bennett, Adam Armstrong and Philip Deignan.
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Bennett scored the second highest tally of Cycling Ireland Olympic points since the start of this season. He has bags of potential and he has not even begun to achieve what he is capable of. If he can get just a little stronger over the remainder of this season and next year, he will be in a position to put his sprint into play in more difficult finales, and more often. The gap between picking off a number of podium finishes or half a dozen wins is one he can bridge very soon if all goes well.
But the truth is that he is just not strong enough for the highest level at this time. His ability to be able to help Roche or Martin in the Olympic road race is questionable at this stage of his career. We would argue, with complete respect to Bennett, that he is just shy of that race-long strength needed to get him to London.
Adam Armstrong has had a great season on home roads this year, and with a bit of luck would have pulled off a Ras stage win. But he is home-based. The standard here is not high enough to offer any meaningful Olympic preparation to go head to head to Team GB, the French, Italians, Australians; the list goes on. It would, however, be very interesting to see what he could do if offered a trial with An Post-Sean Kelly later in a year; a development that we would love to see.
Let’s now consider Brammeier and Deignan.
Deignan has taken a stage in the Vuelta and ninth overall in that race. He has buckets of talent and can win races; big ones. But he has not done that this year; Olympic year.
Brammeier’s story is a fantastic one. He broke his legs, learned to walk again and made his way with great determination to where he is today; national road race and TT champion and riding with Omega Pharma-Quickstep. What’s not to love about that tale of resilience? He is a really good tester and while he is capable of winning big races, he has become very senior in the mainly support role he plays for now.
He was arguably disenfranchised from the selection process from the start, always looking likely to come out of the Cycling Ireland qualification points system well down on the others because he does not get the chance very often to get some results for himself.
But even if the races Brammeier and Deignan were riding had attracted far more Cycling Ireland Olympic points than races being ridden by the Continental team Irish riders, it would have made no difference to them whatsoever.
In Olympic year, Matt Brammeier and Philip Deignan have no results to speak of. The selection criteria may have been more difficult for them, but it wasn’t sprung on them. If a system had been worked out to award points for support work, Brammeier would have had a better chance. But it is simply not workable.
Without results, Brammeier and Deignan gave the selectors nothing to work with; absolutely zero.
So lastly to the man who is joining Roche and Martin in London – pending Brammeier’s appeal of course. David McCann is 39 years old – in virtually all of the commentary on social media this fact has been mentioned again and again.
But the Olympics is not a development race. You put your best team on the line irrespective of years or youth. If Bennett shouldn’t be excluded because of his youth then McCann shouldn’t be excluded because of his years.
In 2009 McCann broke Chris Boardman’s long standing 25 mile TT record. Last year he held off the whole bunch on the last stage of the Ras. In this year’s Ras he was one of only a small number of Irish riders – Connor McConvey was the only other - able to ride to try and win the race. And this was despite nearly losing a thumb in a crash in Korea in April and undergoing two operations under anaesthetic leading up to the Ras.
If Martin or Roche were to puncture and looked up to see McCann waiting for them on the side of the road in London; they would be happy to see an athlete with his engine. The same goes for Brammeier of course; and for Deignan, when he is on song. But the latter two did not get out of the blocks in the scoring system. And McCann has a massive engine that is showing very little, if any, sign of slowing down.
In hindsight, the only way Matt Brammeier or Philip Deignan could have been picked for the Olympics was if the selection was not linked to results and instead the selectors met in a secret process and named the team with no explanation for their choice; as used to be the case in the bad old days.
Anyone there now for the last of the, “You pick my fella, and I’ll pick yours”? No thanks.
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