With the domestic cyclocross season having just got going in recent weeks, Cycling Ireland has decided not to select an Irish team this year for the UEC European Cyclocross Championships.
There are Continental title races for men and women across all the categories - juniors, U23s and elites - on November 8th and 9th in Middelkerke, Belgium.
Cycling Ireland does not always send a national team to the 'cross Europeans or the Worlds. The discipline is somewhat held back in Ireland as funding is focused around the Olympic sports and cyclocross is not included on the Olympic programme.
However, Irish teams have been sent to the cyclocross Europeans four times over the last decade - 2023, 2021, 2019 and 2016 - and national selections have also been sent to the Worlds at times during the same period.
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The absence of a national team selection this year for the Europeans is perhaps not a major surprise considering it is never a certainty for Irish riders.
However, this year there will be no UCI Cyclocross World Cup round in Dublin, which means a major opportunity for Irish team selection was lost for our top riders, even before the Europeans decision was made.
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With the Europeans always taking place on the first or second weekend of November, it falls a little early for the Irish riders - and selectors - as the domestic scene is only picking up speed at that point.
Some of the riders who will likely take medals at the National Cyclocross Championships in the New Year, for example, have not begun racing yet. They are still taking a break from competition after their road season.
Added to that, the road Worlds in Kigali, Rwanda, last month were very expensive for Cycling Ireland. A very large national team was then sent to the road Europeans the following week in France. And just last week another national team was in action, at the track Worlds in Chile.
Those recent championships couldn't have gone much better for Ireland, with Ben Healy getting Ireland underway by winning elite men's road race bronze in Kigali and three medals being won at the road Europeans within days.
Conor Murphy took junior TT silver, Adam Rafferty claimed U23 TT bronze and David Gaffney won a first ever road race medal for Ireland at a Europeans, with bronze in the junior category. And then came the biggest prize; Lara Gillespie's gold medal, and rainbow jersey, in the elimination race at the Worlds in Chile.
The fact those three major championships followed in such quick succession and involved a lot of riders - and far flung destinations such as Rwanda and Chile - militated against funding still being available for the cyclocross Europeans.
It was unclear if there are plans to send a national team to any of the upcoming UCI Cyclocross World Cup rounds or the UCI Cyclocross World Championships in the Netherlands from January 30th to February 1st.
