Northern Ireland's Commonwealth Games cycling team manager, Ryan Connor has picked a great line-up for Glasgow. However, there is no room for Jack Wilson, while his An Post-Chainreaction team mate Sean Downey (above) is very much in the fold (Photo: www.blackumbrella.ie)
By Gerard Cromwell
Thanks to some hard work and successful lobbying on the part of team manager Ryan Connor over the past few months, Northern Ireland yesterday announced its biggest ever cycling squad, comprising 14 riders, for the Commonwealth Games due to be held in Glasgow in July.
“To go from eight riders to 14 is unheard of, but we did a lot of work to get those extra places on the bike,” said Ballymena man Connor.
“We have the exact same numbers as athletics and when you take into account all the different disciplines in athletics, both male and female, that’s quite something.
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"At the start I was going to all these meetings with the Commonwealth Council to agree numbers and things.
"I know the Chef de Mission really well and, to be brutally honest, I said, ‘look this is going to be the first time were going to have to leave out somebody who’s on a pro squad, simply because we only have six road riders.
"He asked me what I meant. I explained it all to him and he told me to come back to him and we were able to justify all those places.”
Roger Aiken (leading) was forced out of the Rás by illness. However, the selectors have confidence in him and he rides the mountain bike race in Glasgow (Photo: Brendan Slattery)
In the end, Connor’s efforts were rewarded with an unprecedented 14 riders from Northern Ireland allocated places in the various disciplines of the sport.
“On the track we have Martyn Irvine, Lydia Boylan, James Browne and Dave Readle, who is James’ pilot. Martyn is entered in a few things but he’ll be doing the points, the scratch and the road race... maybe the individual pursuit but we don’t know yet.
"Lydia is doing the points, scratch and women’s road race. James Browne and Dave Readle will do the two paracycling events, the sprint and the kilo.
"Claire Oakley and Roger Aiken are both mountain bike. Marcus Christie, Wendy Houvenagel and Michael Hutchinson will do the time trial and the rest (Connor McConvey, Peter Hawkins, Philip Lavery, Sean Downey and Fraser Duncan) will do the men’s road race.”
Although Connor says it has been a relatively hassle free process since the start, he admits that having to leave riders out of the final selection was the toughest part of the job.
Marcus Christie of An Post-Chainreaction misses out on the road race but will compete in the time trial (Photo: Sirotti)
While Roger Aiken and Marcus Christie missed out on a ride in the road race, both have the consolation of taking part in other disciplines and will be reserves for the road team while Jack Wilson lost out on selection altogether.
“Once we got our numbers officially, then we got our selection criteria out. The criteria was a good bit harder than it was for Delhi, pretty much because the competition we’re going to be up against this time is going to be a good bit stronger.
"The gist of the squad had already reached the standard last year but selection was always going to be difficult. Fraser Duncan, I wouldn’t say has come out of the blue, but he’s had a really good season. The one major decision we had to make was that we had nine riders going for six places on the road.
"Unfortunately Jack Wilson was the one that wasn’t picked. That was the hardest decision that had to be made.
"It wasn’t so bad for Roger, who could have done as good a job as anybody on that road team, because he’s already going for the mountainbike. Marcus too, he’s already going for the time trial and we now have two very good reserves there if something goes wrong.”
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Former world scratch race champion Martyn Irvine will ride both road and track at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
Having ridden the 2006 Games in Melbourne and managed the Cycling Ulster team for the past few years, Connor has plenty of experience on and off the bike and feels that even though they will be up against stiffer opposition than they faced in Delhi last time around, the Northern Ireland squad can come home with medals.
“I have my own targets,” he says coyly.
“I don’t want to put any pressure on any riders publicly but certainly the track is our best chance of medalling. We certainly have a strong road squad but we’re going to be up against other strong road squads that will be made up almost entirely of WorldTour teams so that will be difficult.
"Bradley Wiggins (England) is there, Geraint Thomas (Wales) is in there too, David Millar (Scotland) Svein Tuft (Canada), I’m not too sure what Australians will be there but usually when the Commonweatlh Games are in Europe you get a stronger field.
"When it’s out of Europe, it’s usually held in March when the bigger riders are doing Paris-Nice or the bigger events so it always works out harder when it’s in Europe.”
The Synergy Baku duo of Philip Lavery (left) and Connor McConvey have both been selected for the road race in Glasgow.
Alongside Connor will be assistant manager Gary McKeegan while Cycling Ireland coach Brian Nugent will attend the track events too. The squad have already had a tour of the facilities in Glasgow and also checked out the road circuit last February.
“It’s a technical course. We did get riding around it but there were some one way streets and cobbled bits and we had to walk in places.
"It’s all very much based in the city centre and you’re never that far away from anywhere but there are a couple of good hills on it which are going to be hard after 80 or 90 miles.”
Having ridden the Melbourne Games in 2006, he says the new additions to the squad can expect something special.
“I never made an Olympics, but Melbourne was brilliant. Walking out to 100,000 people on the opening ceremony is a once in a lifetime experience.
"I think half of the guys have been in the village before but the ones that haven’t it will be a great atmosphere. One of the things you have to do though is watch what you eat. We will be there for about two weeks and you have a 24 hour canteen with very good food from all around the world and cyclists like to eat.
"At the Commonwealth Games, you might not have the depth you do at the Olympics but you still have the top quality there, especially in cycling with GB and Australia now the two strongholds of the sport.
"But I think we have a very strong Northern Ireland team in Glasgow and I think we can hold our own over there and hopefully come back with some medals.”
Lydia Boylan is known for her track and road racing talents but will take to the boards in Glasgow (Photo: Paul Atkinson)
