Analysis: Ireland's team pursuit squads are well funded, but are they improving?

Huge investment is being made in the Irish team pursuit line-ups. We tease out whether there is any return so far. Above, the men in full flight at the UCI World Cup in London last weekend.

Last weekend’s UCI World Cup in London was forgettable for Ireland in many ways, but there were still some reasons for optimism, writes Paddy Doran of Peak Endurance Coaching.

As my blog prior to last weekend’s UCI World Cup in London suggested, the Irish women would make improvements in the team pursuit compared to their performance at the opening World Cup round in Mexico last month.

If we look at the tables below we can see that in the team pursuit qualifying round, the fastest qualifier and the 8th placed (and final) qualifier were both roughly three seconds slower than 1st and 8th in Mexico.

However the Irish women’s team were very close to their time in Mexico, which in effect is the equivalent of a three second improvement for the Irish women judged against their rivals.

There was a gap of five seconds between the Irish and the 8th placed qualifier in London compared to a nine second gap between them and 8th place in Mexico.

So again; good improvements in this important area.

Of course 8th place in qualifying is the cut-off point to go through to the next round in team pursuit. So getting inside that top eight is clearly the target.

The women’s quartet of Lydia Boylan, Josie Knight, Lauren Creamer and Caroline Ryan just about to get underway in the qualifying round in London.

The men’s team didn’t perform so strongly in London.

However, under the circumstances they acquitted themselves reasonably well.

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After all it must be remembered this was nearly a completely new team, with no Ryan Mullen or Martyn Irvine to add to the horsepower.

But there are big improvements required of this team.

Over the next few years as other well coached riders come through the junior ranks and youth talent team squads, it may become a competitive team.

I notice both teams had good pacing strategies with no big drop off in pace near the end, so that’s a change for the better.

More improvements are possible for the women’s squad who may be able to qualify for the World Championships in France from February 18th to 22nd.

Overall it was not a hugely successful World Cup for Ireland but there are signs of good possibilities for the future in some of the events.

The two sprint riders, Eoin Mullen and Shannon McCurley, are interesting and I hope to look at their performances and future possibilities in another blog.

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UCI World Cup Team pursuit qualifying round comparisons

Mexico in November Vs London in December

Men's qualifying split times

Fastest and slowest qualifiers compared to Ireland

Women's qualifying split times

Fastest and slowest qualifiers compared to Ireland