Caroline Ryan has been one of the country's longest-serving track riders and the Kildare woman was in medal-winning and record-breaking form at the weekend, taking gold in the 3km individual pursuit in a new personal best (Photo: Sean Rowe)
Caroline Ryan was the toast of the Irish representation at the Dublin Track Cycling International at the weekend; the Garda CC rider taking gold in the 3km individual pursuit and lowering the track record in the process.
Ryan beat her own Sundrive Road best by almost four tenths of a second – one of just five riders to set new markers during the UCI-ranked two day meeting.
The Kildare woman was also in good form in the other events she rode, though despite some very aggressive performances in the points and scratch races she was just outside the medals.
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Eoin Mullen was in action in the men’s sprints on Saturday and he did very well to make the medal ride-off by finishing fourth fastest in qualifying.
It’s been a rough couple of months for the Aran Islander who was struggling to recover from a shoulder injury sustained in a crash in Italy while preparing for the Dublin meeting.
Great Britain duo Lewis Oliva and Callum Skinner were separated by just three hundredths of a second in securing the top two qualifying positions, with Francesco Ceci edging Mullen for third fastest.
That quartet advanced to contest the semi-finals where Skinner despatched Ceci in two straight rides and Oliva eased past Mullen.
Eoin Mullen finished 4th in the sprint, missing out on a medal after an interrupted build up (Photo: David McVeigh - The Belgian Project)
That meant Mullen still made it through to the bronze medal ride-off but he had no answer to Ceci there.
Oliva confirmed his status as fastest qualifier by securing gold in two tightly contested rides against Skinner.
Elsewhere, Martyn Irvine took silver in the 4km individual pursuit, where newcomer to the track Eoin Morton if UCD was 4th in what was an impressive ride.
Newtownards man Irvine had no answer to New Zealander Regan Gough who lowered the stadium record, set by Ryan Mullen last year, by a staggering 2.5 seconds.
Gough, still aged just 19 years, looks like a star in the making as his time of 4:37 was 16 seconds faster than Irvine’s time of 4:53.
It was a huge margin considering Irvine's pedigree as a three-time World Championships medallist, a former world champion and victor on the UCI World Cup circuit.
Irvine was also in action in the 15km scratch race and went on the offensive early and often.
Martyn Irvine, in the green of Ireland, was in characteristically aggressive form on a rare track outing in Dublin at the weekend (Photo: Sean Rowe)
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He went straight from the gun and was joined by Max Beyer of Germany, though both were eventually reeled in.
Irvine went again and rode solo until the final six laps before Beyer raced clear on his own to win the gold medal ahead of Belgium’s Moreno de Pauw and Alex Frame of New Zealand.
Murt Rice (Sundrive Track Team) took a brilliant bronze in the points race after escaping in the latter half of the race and mopping up valuable points.
That event was won by Gough again, who lapped the field twice.
The Irish dominated the junior women’s scratch race with Orwell Wheelers’ Naoise Sheridan taking the win, but not before she had overhauled long time solo breakaway Shenna McKiverigan (Banbridge CC).
Jennifer Neenan (NRPT-Magnet.ie) just failed in a late bid to get back on terms with the lead duo, though underlined her potential with a classy ride.
The men’s junior scratch was a similarly busy affair, with Conor Murnane making it a double for Orwell Wheelers as he edged Xeno Young (Powerhouse Sport) and Barry Talt (Murphy Surveys Kilcullen).
Young gun Josie Knight and national road race champion Lydia Boylan in action in the omnium event (Photo: Sean Rowe)
Ireland’s Lydia Boylan finished fifth in the women's omnium after taking second in the 500m standing start and flying 250m time trials behind the all-conquering Kirsten Wild of the Netherlands.
Josie Knight ended the weekend ninth while Lydia Gurley was 11th in what was their first experience of senior international omnium competition.
Martyn Irvine replicated Boylan’s performance in the men’s omnium, the former scratch race world champion producing typically aggressive performances in the bunch races.
In the points race, Irvine jumped from ninth to fifth, scooping up a total of 40 points during a number of periods out front, riding solo and later with Max Beyer of Germany and later again with Aleksander Perez of Norway.
New Zealand's Cameron Karwowski beat the 1km TT stadium record in the omnium by almost one and a half seconds to 1m05.77s.
Holland's Kirsten Wild and Roy Eefting both beat the flying 250m stadium record in the women's and men's events respectively, taking 1.2 and .2 of a second off the previous marks during the Omnium competitions to lowered the records to 15.287 and 13.965 respectively.
Full results to follow.
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