World Road Race Champs: We detail the full quotas Ireland can send to all events

Ronan McLaughlin was one of three Irish riders in the elite men's World Road Race Championships in Holland last year. Ireland could potentially have a very big team going to Florence next month for the 2013 edition if Cycling Ireland avails of all of the places available to it. (Photo: Toby Watson)

This evening the UCI has released a somewhat technical guide to how many riders each nation is entitled to enter at this year's World Road Championships in Florence, Italy, next month.

The Championships are a week-long event that get underway with the elite men's and elite women's trade squad's Team Time Trials (TTT). Once they are completed, the rest of the racing is contested by national squads.

These include road races and individual time trials for elite men, elite women, U23 men, junior men and junior women.

While Irish riders are eligible to ride all of the events except the U23 road race - where we failed to qualify any starters - it is unclear if those elite men's and women's trade teams who have qualified for the TTT and have Irish athletes on their rosters will select those Irish riders for the race.

And while Ireland can field riders in all of the individual time trials and the road races apart from the U23 road race, Cycling Ireland has regularly opted not to pick big teams to fill the full quota.

It has opted instead to select riders it feels are strong enough to compete at a Worlds rather than picking the largest team possible simply to give experience to riders it regards as just shy of the standard required to pull on an Irish jersey at a Worlds.

However, Ireland could potentially have a very big team going to Florence for the 2013 edition if Cycling Ireland avails of all of the places available to it. Here's the summary of what's open to us:

Elite Men’s Road Race

The UCI list published today, Friday, sees Ireland as having qualified four riders; six names to be nominated, four of whom will start.

Elite Men’s TTT

The elite men’s TTT involves trade teams rather than national selections. Among those teams eligible to ride are Nicolas Roche’s Saxo Tinkoff, Daniel Martin’s Garmin Sharp and Philip Deignan’s Unitedhealthcare, though it is unclear if any, or all, will be selected to ride by their teams.

Elite Men’s Individual TT

Ireland can enter four riders of which two will start.

Elite Women’s Road Race

Ireland can enter six riders, with three to start.

Elite Women’s Individual TT

Elite Women’s TTT

The US-based Team TIBCO squad of the National Road Race Champion Mel Spath has qualified to ride the race though it is unclear if the Irish woman will be selected by her team to ride.

U23 Men’s Road Race

Ireland has failed to qualify. Along with the elite men's road race, this is the only race at the Worlds where nations must reach a certain level in the UCI's rankings in order to qualify riders. In other events, all nations can enter a small number of riders and rankings only kick in when it comes to nations qualifying teams larger than the minimum number of riders allocated to all countries irrespective of their ranking.