Ten Podiums Decided on Final Day of Dublin Track Cycling International

Ten Podiums: Olympic Riders and Irish Track Stars Shine

No less than ten podiums were decided today on the final day of the Dublin Track Cycling International 2017, with Olympic Champion Elinor Barker and Olympic Bronze Medallist Niklas Larsen continuing their winning ways. Ireland also impressed with six medals across the Scratch and Keirin events; both Felix English and Robyn Stewart came home with silver, second only to Rio Olympians.

In the Men’s Scratch Race Felix English raced a tactical race, moving away with a group of seven riders. A crash in the closing laps of the race led to the race being neutralised briefly – once the gun sounded again the group raced hard with Niklas Larsen taking the win ahead of Ireland’s English. John Mould rounded off the podium.

English was happy with the race adding “there’s a lot of depth in the field – pretty much everyone that you expect to see in the World Cup you are racing with. It’s good in a way because you have to race them at some point – but it also makes it difficult because you want to get the points for the winter season.”

Later in the day Robyn Stewart added a silver to yesterday’s medal, coming in just behind Dutch Olympian Laurine Van Riessen in the Women’s Keirin; Andrea Waldis rounded off the podium winning bronze.

The relative newcomer to track racing has stormed onto the Irish scene, setting a new National Record in recent weeks for the Sprint. Determined to get the better of Van Riessen in the future, the Belfast rider was relatively happy with her performance - “It was a good race – I think I left it a bit late to make my jump. I think it if went a wee bit earlier there might be a bit there – but she’s fast. I know Laurine well, so it’s always fun to get to race against each other, one day I will beat her.”

Silver also went to Fintan Ryan in the U23 Scratch Race, when the TrackProject.ie rider lapped the field with Ethan Hayter. Bronze went to Ireland’s Sundrive Track Team rider Hugo Brennan.

After the race Ryan was pleased with his performance – “it was a good race, I knew Ethan would be the guy to watch, so we were marking each other a bit. We ended up getting away eventually and rode at tempo and ended up catching the field. Then it came to the sprint and he pipped me on the line. He’s a strong rider, so there’s no shame losing to him.”

Eamonn Byrne won bronze in the Men’s Keirin, sharing the podium with the Ceci brothers from Italy – gold medal winner David Ceci and silver medallist Luca Ceci. After the race Byrne was delighted with his medal haul from the weekend saying – “I didn’t imagine I would come away with two medals – it was a tough weekend, but I’m delighted. I think this year I was more relaxed than last year and that made more of a difference.”

Earlier this morning Sean Murnane won silver medal in the Junior Scratch Race, with Argentina’s Ivan Gariel-Ruiz winning gold.

International stars stole the limelight in the other events – full results below.

Dublin City Sport & Wellbeing Partnership once again were the funding partner of the Dublin Track Cycling International, and have been a valuable support of track cycling over the past number of years, with this event in its fifth year.

RESULTS

Jun Men’s Scratch Gold Ivan Gabriel-Ruiz (ARG) Silver Sean Murnane (IRL)	U23 Men’s Scratch Gold Ethan Hayter (GB) Silver Fintan Ryan (IRL) Bronze Hugo Brennan (IRL)
Women’s Scratch Elinor Barker (GB) Trine Schmidt (DEN) Megan Barker (GB)	Men’s Scratch Niklas Larsen (DEN) Felix English (IRL) John Mould (GB)
Women’s Keirin Laurine Van Riessen (NED) Robyn Stewart (IRL) Andrea Waldis (SUI)	Men’s Keirin David Ceci (ITA) Luca Ceci (ITA) Eamonn Byrne (IRL)
Men’s Points Niklas Larson (DEN) Roy Pieters (NED) Casper Pederson (DEN)	Women’s Points Elinor Barker (GB) Trine Schmidt (DEN) Megan Barker (GB)
Women’s IP Elinor Barker (GB) Megan Barker (GB) Emily Kaye (GB)	Men’s IP Michelle Scartezzini (ITA) Sam Harrison (GB) Ethan Hayter (GB)
Women’s Omnium Elinor Barker (GB) Trine Schmidt (DEN) Megan Barker (GB)	Men’s Omnium Niklas Larson (DEN) Frederik Rodenberg Madsen (DEN) Ethan Hayter (GB)
Women’s Sprint Laurine Van Riessen (NED) Robyn Stewart (IRL) Autumn Collins (IRL)	Men’s Sprint Roy Van Den Berg (NED) David Ceci (ITA) Eamonn Byrne (ITA)