Tough debut as Ireland’s women feel the pace at World Track Cycling Championships
Lauren Creamer, Caroline Ryan, Josie Knight and Lydia Boylan clocked a time of 4.40.388, more than 20 seconds slower than winners Australia, who just edged their great rivals Great Britain with Canada third. It was a disappointing start to the Irish squad’s campaign but with such an inexperienced line-up — three of the four only made their debut in the event last October — it was unfair to expect anything from them.
The plan had been for rising star Josie Knight to set the pace early on and the young Kerry woman did that — perhaps too well, in fact.
The Team Pursuit event is highly tactical where the time of the third rider over the line at the end of the 4 kilometres is taken but when Knight dropped off, as per the plan, that left Creamer, Ryan and Boylan to take it home.
However, Boylan lost contact with the pace set by Creamer and Ryan and accordingly, the clock was stopped when she crossed the line.
4.40 is by no means a bad time; it was two seconds faster than what they set in qualifying in last month’s third round of the World Cup in Cali, but it was marginally slower than what they set in the preceding two rounds in Mexico and London, respectively.
Caroline Ryan reflected afterwards: “We were so excited about yesterday, but it’s the first World Championships for a lot of the team.
“We would’ve loved to have done ourselves justice; I’m disappointed with that because we haven’t.
“Looking at that we’re going to be very disappointed. A lot has to happen for it to come right on the day.
“It’s not like we are looking for something that we haven’t seen.”
But she also stressed “there’s exciting things to come from this team. “We have great strength and depth and it’s so exciting going forward for next year.”
Next up is Martyn Irvine, who gets his campaign underway at 9pm tonight with the 15km scratch race.
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