Cycling round-up: Irish team pursuit squad lower national record yet again

The Irish women’s team pursuit squad have continued their recent upwards momentum, improving their own national record again for the third time in 15 days.

Alice Sharpe, Kelly Murphy, Lara Gillespie and Mia Griffin set a new mark just over two weeks ago at the European Championships in Switzerland, and on Thursday went a further 2.180 seconds quicker with a time of 4 minutes 17.525 seconds.

They were even faster on Friday’s track session at the UCI Tissot Track Nations Cup in Jakarta, Indonesia, covering the 4,000 metre race distance in 4:16.877.

This reflected a 0.648 second improvement in one day, but agonisingly left them marginally short of fourth place in the competition, a result which would have seen them compete for the bronze medal.

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Sharpe, Murphy, Gillespie and Griffin finished just 0.66 seconds behind the Australian squad, netting fifth in the competition. The Australian riders went on to the bronze medal final and finished fourth there.

National track coach Dan Henchy hailed their results and momentum.

“It was important for the women’s team pursuit to start Olympic qualification strongly and fifth place at UEC European Championships was a solid result,” he said.

“The first round of the UCI Tissot Track Nations Cup series in Jakarta was a quick turnaround, so to take a decent chunk of time off the national record and bag another fifth place is just the start we were planning for.

“There’s still a lot of work to do over the next year to secure a spot in the Paris Games but the gap to the top nations is closing and we’re learning a lot and growing in confidence with every ride.”

Griffin also lined out in the women’s elimination race, finishing 15th.

Elsewhere, Sam Bennett went close to his second win of the season on Friday’s fifth stage of the UAE Tour, netting third into the finish in Umm al Quwain.

Bennett’s Bora-hansgrohe team worked hard in the finale, driving the pace inside the final 25 kilometres and causing a split in the peloton. Things came back together with nine kilometres remaining, with the finale seeing a lot of bustle as the teams fought for position.

Bennett was better positioned than on Thursday’s stage, being led out from the front by team-mate Danny van Poppel, but had to hold back rather than jumping too soon into what was a strong headwind.

He was caught out by a surge on either side of him by the Dutch rider Dylan Groenewegen (Jayco-AlUla) and the Colombian Fernando Gaviria (Movistar Team), becoming boxed in between them and behind Van Poppel, and having to wait until he was behind Groenewegen before fully launching his sprint.

Bennett was closing on the other two but ran out of road before the finish and had to be content with third. Two stages remain in the United Arab Emirates-based race, with Saturday’s finish at Abu Dhabi Breakwater also suited to the sprinters.

Bora-hansgrohe sports director Bernhard Eisel said that Friday’s result will spur Bennett and the team on. “We lost a bit of control in the finale, but then Danny [van Poppel] really brought Sam in a perfect position. There was very little missing today and we will still analyse where we must improve, and of course, this result gives us further motivation for tomorrow’s stage.”

World road-race champion Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) continues to lead overall and will feel upbeat about his chances heading towards Sunday’s uphill finale to the race.