Irish cyclists get ready to race for Olympic places

IRISH team manager Martin O’Loughlin will be hoping that his charges can claim two places in next year’s Olympic Games at the World B cycling championships in Aigle, Switzerland, on Sunday.

The men who are facing the task of securing two top-15 qualifying spots are two-time national champion David McCann who rode in the last two Olympics, Tommy Evans also a former national champion, Denis Easton, Eugene Moriarty, Brian Kenneally and David O'Loughlin.

Four years ago, Eugene Moriarty finished fifth in the World B championships in Uruguay, with Ciarán Power third.

He will bring an added bit of expertise into an already experienced team of riders.

All the racers contested the national championships on Sunday, where Brian Kenneally and David McCann cramped and Tommy Evans was an early abandonment.

But the team manager insisted that this had a lot to do with the course in Sligo, which included a very difficult climb on a very hot day.

"This time, the drag is a maximum of five per cent, and it is only two miles long, so it is not too bad. This is not a climbers' course but with 214 riders entered, it is going to have its own hazards," he said. "We can expect a bit of everything in this race.

"There are a lot of nations we don't really know very much about the Belarussians, the Bulgarians and the Yugoslavians you don't know them, but they will be good.

"And Canada look very strong. They have Gordon Fraser, who won a stage of the Tour de Beauce Canada's top stage race last week. Another member of the team was second in one stage and third in another, and they also have Andrew Randell, who won the stage in last year's FBD Milk Rás into Castletownbere. The Iranians are also strong, so it is going to be a pretty stiff race.

But O'Loughlin stressed that the Irish are up to the challenge.

"We have as strong a team as any of them. The last time the boys qualified in Uruguay, Eugene and Ciarán were up, and that race was almost into November, when our season was long over.

"They have had good race preparation and things have gone really well.

"They have had the Rás, the national championships and this is the time they should be all spot-on."

Colette Swift from Fermoy, currently based in Surrey with Old Portlians, will lead the Irish women's team in the absence of six-time national champion, Geraldine Gill from Navan.

She is based in France and cannot ride in the World B championships on account of the UCI points she earned last year.