The Irish team pursuiters have advanced to the next round of competition at the European Track Championships in Grenchen, Switzerland, today. The line-up was comprised of Alice Sharpe, Mia Griffin, Lara Gillespie and Kelly Murphy.
The four women will face Poland tomorrow and are still in the fight for a medal in what is their first outing of the Paris 2024 Olympic qualification campaign.
In team pursuit qualifying today Ireland set the early marker, clocking a time of 4:21.426 which was faster than Poland, Spain and Switzerland, though the strong nations were yet to take to the track.
The four big squads lived up to their billing, with Great Britain fastest in a time of 4:11.594, from Italy (4:14.227), France (4:16.149) and Germany (4:16.942). Those times meant Ireland finished 5th of the eight teams in the competition.
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As there were only eight teams, all qualified for Round 1 due to be held tomorrow, Thursday. Ireland will ride against Poland and the four fastest teams of the four head-to-heads will got through to the medal ride offs.
With a sizeable gap in times between the top four teams and everyone else in the competition, it is hard to look beyond those top four qualifiers for the medal ride-offs. However, the Irish women were today some way off their national record - 4:19.738 set last April - so they will know they have another gear if they can find it.
Alice Sharpe was the busiest Irish rider at the championships today as she also rode in the scratch race. While she forged clear in a breakaway, it was overhauled with about 15 laps to race.
Shortly after that move was recaptured, more riders tried their luck, with Portugal’s Maria Martins and Spain’s Eukene Larrate Arteaga staying clear for gold and silver while Poland's Daria Pikulik claimed bronze in the 19-rider race.
