Strong Madison Racing Closes Action at 2016 UEC Track European Championships

Sixth for Women and Eleventh for Men on Last Day of European Championships in Paris

In the inaugural Women’s Madison race at the 2016 UEC European Track Championships in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Velodrome in Paris Ireland’s pairing of Lydia Boylan and Lydia Gurley finished in seventh place. Felix English and Fintan Ryan finished eleventh in the men’s equivalent. Thirteenth place for Eoin Mullen in the Keirin rounded up the action of the large and relatively new Irish team at the European Track Championships in 2016. While the championships this year feature many newer members on the Cycling Ireland track programme, Ireland has already seen success, with Anna Turvey winning Bronze in the Individual Pursuit on Friday. The championships ran from 19^th – 23^rd October in Paris.

While the Madison had been included in the men’s international race programme for the last number of years, this is the first year for it to be included on the women’s programme. The format of the Madison is an exciting one, whereby two riders compete for each nation; racing in a relay format the riders sling each other into action every couple of laps, taking turns to race the distance. There are also sprint points every ten laps, and the winning team is the team with most points. Boylan and Gurley secured 7 points in their 120 lap race, to finish seventh overall. English and Ryan had gained 8 points, but lost 20 when they were lapped, resulting in an eleventh place finish.

Cycling Ireland Technical Director Brian Nugent was happy with today’s racing saying “This was a new venture for us, competing in the Madison, so it was super to be able to be competitive today. The women did great, this was the first time that this competition has been there for them, and it’s a very technical event. After they settled in they really got going and you could see their fire power on both occasions when they went for the points. It’s important to have this event in the programme and it has a lot of potential for the future.

“Felix and Fintan started very well but faded as the race reached the closing stages. 50km is a long way and we’ll have to work on the distance for this event. David [Muntaner – track coach] has done a lot of work with these guys, and as a former World Champion, they were learning from the best. David will move them again.”

This has been a good European Championships for Ireland with newer members of the Cycling Ireland track programme gaining a lot from top level race exposure. Nugent is satisfied that the programme is on track; “Our main aim for these championships were for our team to gain experience and exposure to international championship competition with our more experienced riders challenging for top positions. We achieved both these targets and also came away with a bronze medal and a few national records. It’s been a good overall team performance and a lot of people stepped up to the mark this week. It’s been an encouraging start to the new four year cycle.”

Next up for the Irish track team is the first track cycling World Cup in Glasgow from the 4-6 November. There are three World Cups and the World Championships, which take place in Hong Kong from the 12-16 April 2017.