THE Federation of Irish Cyclists (FIC) got a pleasant surprise yesterday when they were informed by Hein Verbruggen, president of the world governing body, the UCI, that there is a place for one rider from Ireland in the Olympic road race line up at Atlanta on July 31st.
The Irish team failed by just four places to get among the 54 nations that qualified for the Olympic event in the world road race championship in Colombia last October, but apparently there were some vacancies in the field of almost 200 as some countries are not filling all their allotted places and Ireland is one of the first four to be given a single slot.
The national team director, Alasdair MacLennan, said it was "a major boost for the road racing scene and adds excitement to the races over the next few weeks."
The matter will be discussed at tonight's FIC board meeting in Dublin. The Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI) has accepted the selections of Declan Lonergan and Philip Collins for their track events and for Martin Earley and Alastair Martin in the mountain bike race. Now another man must be ratified for the road race.
MacLennan said names of chosen Olympic competitors must be with the OCI for accreditation by next Wednesday, but he will be drawing up a short list and the selection of the road race representative must come from that group. "I would hope to be able to delay final selection until the end of June if possible," MacLennan said. The European under 23 road race championship, on the Isle of Man on June 18th, is an obvious final trial.
MacLennan has also decided on the four men to represent Ireland in the FBD Milk Ras, which starts tomorrow week, and it is a controversial selection: none of them are home based, they are all racing with French clubs.
Micheal Fitzgerald (21), from Clonmel, is number one. He is a member of the ACBB team in Paris and, as the winner of the road race championship last year at Wexford, was an automatic choice. He will now be out to enhance his Olympic selection prospects.
Peter Daly (23), from Kilkenny, is based at Tours, Mark Hutton (21), from Belfast, has been at Auch for three seasons, and Dubliner Leslie McKay (27), returns from Lorient and has been designated by MacLennan as team captain because of his experience.
MacLennan will manage the team, which has a new sponsor - Abrakebabra - and he will be attempting to win the Ras for a record fourth time in a row. Last year Paul McQuaid proved best, Declan Lonergan was successful in 1994 and the previous year Eamon Byrne took the honours for MacLennan's Ireland team.
MacLennan said he selected the French based quartet because they have been racing at a higher level. But with a very strong visiting challenge they will need to rise well above the form they have shown in recent international engagements if they are to extend MacLennan's sequence of successes.
With the exception of a few contenders doing exams, nearly all the rest of the top Irishmen will be involved, riding with county teams. But the line up will not include any former winner.
On the mountain bike scene, the team of four has been chosen for the Tour of Britain next week: Joe McCall, Richie McCauley, David Maher and Niall Quinlan. Earley rides with Raleigh.
It starts at Portsmouth on Tuesday, then has stages on the following days at Petersfield, Rochester, Bath and Swansea with the finish on Sunday week at Ilkeston.
Martin contests the second round of the British mountain bike series at Hereford over the weekend.
Collins is in Athens for the World Cup track meeting and his event, the 4,000 metres pursuit, is on today. He goes on to Busto Garolfo, Milan, next week.
Sunday's Bray Wheelers promotion, the Shay Elliott memorial race, is the third of eight events to count in the classic league. In the first race at Carlow Paul Griffin won from David Peelo. Then, in the Hammond memorial event, Tommy Evans was first with Peelo third and Griffin fifth. This leaves Griffin and Peelo level on 21 points.
