An emotional Caroline Ryan in Melbourne in April receiving her World Champs bronze medal
By Caroline Martinez
World Track Championships bronze medallist, Caroline Ryan is representing Ireland this weekend at the track World Cup in Glasgow where she will compete in the omnium. After a very eventful year, she is back on the boards for the winter in an attempt to qualify for the Track World Championships in Minsk, Belarus, next February.
“I’m building form at the moment. I’m racing the omnium in Glasgow and the individual pursuit in Mexico,” she said referring to the weekend ahead and the next World Cup meeting across the globe in January.
“The first and most important step is to qualify for World Championships and then who knows what can happen if training and racing goes perfectly in the lead up,” she said.
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“A whole lot has to come together in the months prior to the Worlds and then things have to go very right on the day for it all to result in a medal. Naturally I’d like to repeat that success (of bronze last season) in the future. But I know how hard it was to get there so I'll just keep training hard and doing all the little things right and hopefully some day I'll get to upgrade it to gold. “
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Aside from her Worlds points race bronze in Melbourne in April, she is the current Irish individual pursuit champion and is ranked 9th in the world. Last September, Ryan also won two medals in the European Police Road Championships. However, she was still recovering from illness during those police championships and was not in a position to take up her place at the World Championships in Holland later that month.
“I really wanted to race the Worlds but I wasn’t at the right level so I had a complete break for four weeks. I finally got around to going on an actual holiday; one where the bike stayed at home. For once I didn't miss it. I really needed the break. I enjoyed that and could feel myself recovering really well.”
In recent weeks Ryan has been training hard with her coaches Andy Sparks and Brian Nugent in Majorca along with fellow track international Martyn Irvine.
“I’m keeping well and in good form at the moment.” she said.
“I'm really focused on what I'm doing at the moment and enjoying the training and racing and getting the very best out of myself. I’m on the road most days, I love time trialling and this summer I will be taking part in more road races to gain more experience. I really want to get good at those. We have a great team of Garda ladies and we have a great opportunity to perform well at the Nationals next year, so I’m looking forward to that as well.”
She said she was very thankful to her sponsors and hopeful that they would remain with her. They include: Craft, Adidas, ISM, Bus Eireann, St Paul's Garda Credit Union, St Raphael's Garda Credit Union, The Jackson Court Hotel, The Garda Athletic Association and the Garda Cycling Club.
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