David O'Loughlin in his Irish colours, riding the boards in Manchester. Photo by Stephen McMahon.To put this disappointment in perspective, it should be noted that David only started racing track in 2006; before that he’d only raced road. Plus, there isn’t even a proper track for him to train on in Ireland; anyone seriously interested in track racing has to travel to Britain to train.
But all is not lost! David is the first reserve rider, and if any of the top five drop out, he will qualify and Ireland will have someone to cheer on at the track in Beijing.
David at Manchester again. Wouldn't it be great if Ireland had a proper velodrome? Photo by Stephen McMahon.So, even with this disappointing news coming from the UCI, the Pezula Racing rider is 9th in the UCI World rankings in Individual Pursuit, he came 6th at the recent World Championships, and with luck he’ll represent Ireland at the Olympics this summer. Oh yeah, and he's Irish National Road Race Champion. Pretty incredible.
Plus, equally incredible, I found a Pezula Racing cycling cap in a bike shop in Chicago! Deadly! I had no idea Pezula even had any caps, but they do and Cycle Smithy has some for sale. Get one and support this great Irish professional cycling team.
2 comments:
Simon, I don't understand: The UCI is only taking the top 5 finishers from the worlds: does that mean there are only 5 people competing in the particular track event? Is that normal?
Ben, I just took a quick look at the UCI's qualification system, and it's pretty confusing.
For the Individual Pursuit, it looks like they're taking the top 5 UCI ranked riders, plus 1 rider from each of the 8 Team Pursuit teams. That would make 13 riders.
What doesn't make sense to me is that they go on to say that they also take the World Champion. It does not say they take the top 5 finishers from the Worlds. So, I don't really understand how David is the first reserve, because he's 9th in the UCI rankings, 4 places below the cut off.
But, the UCI also say they take the World Cup winner. However, there were 4 World Cup events last year! Were those events cumulative? Was it like a league where you scored points in each of the 4 events, and someone was eventually named World Cup Champion? If so, I never heard anything about it...
Anyway, like everything with the UCI it's insanely complicated, and I have a feeling not even they know what's going on. I'll try to get some clarification on the issue.
To answer your question, then, there should be at least 13 riders competing in the Individual Pursuit at the Olympics. But there may be more... or less... er....
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