Cycling Ireland announces plans for Elite Road World and European Championships
Cycling Ireland has today announced it’s approach to the milestone international Championship road racing events this season.
This season sees the Road World Championships take place at altitude in Kigali, Rwanda over 20-28th September, and then almost immediately the UEC European Championships in Drome-Ardeche, France over 1-5th October.
Over the last month the High Performance Unit (HPU) at CI conducted an athlete consultation which sought the views of 48 riders across all age categories that have expressed an interest in selection for either Paris Olympic Games, or Zurich Road World Championships last year. Input was canvassed regarding the riders’ competitive goals for the year and desire to compete in either or both events.
With the high altitude setting for the World Championships in Rwanda, the climbing-oriented courses, and the extremely high costs facing National Federations to attend, the HPU felt it was important to listen to the riders’ perspective before determining how to approach each event.
High Performance Director Iain Dyer said,
“We felt it important riders have their say. There’s nothing worse than feeling you’re on the end of a decision you haven’t been consulted on. Equally it gave us an opportunity to assess riders’ appetite for either competition.”
The outcome from this process has resulted in a mixed approach and Cycling Ireland will attend both events in varying capacities, subject to the regular selection policy.
The decision has been made to attend the road World Championships with the elite men’s team, whilst elite women along with both male and female U23 and male and female juniors will focus on the European Championships. The elite men won’t race the European Championships if a team is selected for the World Championships.
Dyer said,
“Riders know full well if they can climb in heat at altitude in a one-day championship environment or not, and we appreciated the honesty in the responses we received. It’s a fact of life that championships courses and environments vary massively season by season, and some years won’t be for everyone. Naturally we need to make cost effective decisions also, but it was clear that in some categories we didn’t have enough commitment for Kigali that we would have sufficient riders to fulfil our potential team size quotas.
It is our hope now that this early decision gives our riders clarity over the championships on offer for selection and they can work towards that during their season.”