The Irish women's pursuit team in action in Cali, Colombia, last night. They are getting closer to the stronger nations at these World Cups (Photos: Guy Swarbrick)
By Brian Canty
The Irish men’s and women’s team pursuit squads failed to advance from qualifying on the opening night of action at the UCI World Cup in Cali, Colombia, last night.
The women’s team of Caroline Ryan, Lauren Creamer, Josie Knight and Lydia Boylan were the second squad to take to the boards and they recorded a time of 4.42.731.
It was good enough for 11th out of 17 teams.
With only the top eight to advance, the Irish foursome were always up against it.
But they can take comfort in the fact they were less than two seconds off eighth place – and it was arguably their best result of the three rounds of the World Cup to date.
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They shot out of the blocks and were fourth fastest at the midway point before fading in the closing kilometre.
To put their result into context, they were 17th from 20 teams in Guadalajara, Mexico, in November and a month later in London they were 12th of 19 teams.
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The men puttting their heads down in Cali last night; it was a tough outting for them but the team pursuit is going to take a long time to get right (Photo: Guy Swarbrick)
So if nothing else, they've improved from where they were just two months ago.
The times were much slower in Cali last night as the track there is only partially covered, meaning it is exposed to the elements.
And to underline that, the winning times from the first two World Cups were 4:20 and 4:23 - set by Team GB - while last night 4:35 was the fastest time - set by China.
The Team GB women's team were not present in Cali last night.
The Irish men’s team of Ryan Mullen, Martyn Irvine, Cormac Clarke and Thomas Fallon were 18th out of 23 world-class teams, stopping the clock at 4:13:214.
It was slower than what they did in Mexico - 4:11:618 - but faster than London - 4:17:444 – when neither Irvine nor Mullen were in the team.
As expected, Australia went quickest in 4:04.106, followed by Germany on 4:04.158, with Rusvelo third in 4:04.405.
(Note: This story has been amended since first published. Information supplied by Cycling Ireland on the team line-up was wrong. Sean Downey did not ride in the team pursuit, though he did travel to Colombia.)
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