Ireland went very close to securing three places for the men's U23 road race at the World Championships in Richmond, Virginia, next month but came up one point short.
By Brian Canty
Ireland will not be represented in this year’s U23 men’s road race at the UCI World Championships in Richmond, Virginia, after failing to secure enough points in qualifying events throughout the year.
The news will come as a blow to both Eddie Dunbar and Ryan Mullen who were both guaranteed to be picked for the race which takes place on Saturday, September 25th.
The qualifying criteria stipulates that the top 27 nations in the UCI Europe Tour on the cut-off point of August 15th all qualify teams of between five and three riders depending on how up the rankings each nation is placed.
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Ireland finished 28th, one point behind Greece and just one place outside the qualifying slots.
Ireland could also have qualified a team for the U23 road race had any of our U23 riders been in the top 300 in the UCI Europe Tour rankings.
Dunbar went closest as he occupies 377th place in those combined elite and U23 rankings.
And had the Irish scored any points in the U23 Nations Cup series of races, a three-man team would have been on the start line for the Worlds next month.
However, Irish teams were only sent to three Nations Cup races out of a total seven; the Tour of Flanders, Le Cote de Picardie and the ZLM Toer in Holland.
All three races took place in April and when many of the riders selected fell ill or crashed in the first two outings, Ireland found itself unable to field a team in the ZLM Toer.
Jack Wilson on his way to finishing the U23 Tour of Flanders last April during the main week of the U23 Nations Cup. Ireland failed to score any points in the three key races and had to withdraw from the final event when illness and crashes took their toll and those fit to continue had not been provisionally entered into the event (Photo: Joe Duffy)
Cycling Ireland had entered nine riders into the event and was bound by the rules only to pick its team from the nine provisionally entered.
It meant while some riders, such as Dunbar, were healthy and going well and would have been able to compete well, because they were not among the group provisionally entered the Irish had to withdraw.
It was at the ZLM Toer last year that Mullen scored his 6th place result that qualified the U23 team for the Worlds in Spain.
This time around, the race was a two-day three-stage event with a 24.8km TT that would have suited Mullen.
Dunbar and Mullen have been strongest of the Irish U23s this season and they were certain to be picked for the road race in the US, where they would have been backed by one other rider had Ireland sneaked a qualifying place for a three-man team.
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While Dunbar rode very aggressively in the one Nations Cup race he was picked for and at the recent European Road Championships, the breakaways he was in were all caught and neither he nor any of the other Irish riders placed in the point-scoring positions.
Up until June 25th Ireland were ranked 26th in the UCI Europe Tour and would have qualified three riders had they maintained that slot.
But they slipped to 28th by the end of July and only managed to score five points in the interim.
The riders were eligible to score qualifying points while racing with their trade teams, rather than on national team duty only. But they did not collect the required results.
The only silver lining is that the Irish U23s do not have to qualify for the time trial in the US next month and Dunbar and Mullen are a certainty to be selected to ride the test barring illness of injury.
They were fourth and ninth in the recent European Championships in Estonia.
Mullen was beaten for the U23 TT world title in Spain last September by 0.48 seconds by Australian Campbell Flakemore. The Irish rider will not be in the Worlds road race in Richmond, Virginia, next month but will still ride the TT (Photo: Sirotti)
Mullen was second in the U23 TT at the Worlds last year, losing the gold medal by less than one second and he will go to Richmond as a red hot favourite to take the world title.
It will be his last chance to take an U23 crown because he will become a full time WorldTour rider with Cannondale-Garmin from January 1st.
He is currently a stagiaire, or trial, rider with the team. But that trial status does not exclude him from riding U23 championship races.
Once a full time member of a WorldTour team, a rider is no longer eligible to compete in U23 championships even if they are still young enough.
Meanwhile, Ireland will have three riders in the men's elite road race, two of whom can do the individual time-trial as well.
Five riders can start the men's junior road race, two of whom can also do the time-trial.
In the women's events, Ireland can send four juniors for the road race and two for the time-trial as well as two for the elite time-trial and three for the elite women’s road race.
The teams will not be named until much closer to the championships.
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