For Immediate Release

31st October

Irish Women’s Pursuiters Score Top Ten in Cali World Cup

 

The Irish Women’s and Men’s Team Pursuit squads have got Ireland’s challenge under way in the first round of the UCI Track World Cup in Cali, Colombia.

 

The Irish women’s quartet of Lydia Boylan, Josie Knight, Caroline Ryan and Melanie Späth were the second team into action in the four kilometer women’s Team Pursuit and a swift start translated into a finishing time of 4m35.698s, marginally slower than their opening effort at the European Championships in Grenchen two weeks ago.



 

That would ultimately mean the Irish finished tenth of the 16 teams in action and ahead of two of their European rivals including the higher-ranked Belarus squad.

 

They were followed into action by the Ireland’s young men’s team of Mark Downey, Felix English, Marc Potts and Fintan Ryan who stopped the clocks in 4m13.038s for 17th fastest and more important experience gained.



 

Felix English was back on track within a couple of hours for the men’s 30km Points Race where the 23-year-old produced a battling performance to finish seventh. English lapped the field once and scored in five of the 12 separate sprints in what was an all-action affair.



 

Tomorrow Martyn Irvine will ride the Men’s individual Pursuit while Lydia Boylan goes for Ireland in the Women’s Scratch Race.

 

Team Technical Director Brian Nugent:-

“The team performed well today and the women's team were extremely close to making it into the final rides. It's the first time they've placed in the Top 10 in a World Cup. It's constant progress.

 

“Felix put in a great ride in the points race and he's really starting to settle back into International track racing.”

 

The Cali World Cup will be covered live on the UCI YouTube Channel on Sunday only. See UCI.ch for details.

 

For full results from the Cali World Cup see the the Official Website: http://www.copamundopistacali.com/

 

For live timing see http://www.tissottiming.com/Competition?id=00030C0005FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF&sport=CT&year=2015

 

See the Cycling Ireland twitter feed for live updates: @IreCyclingFed