Irish Gain More World Championship Points at UCI Track Cycling World Cup Manchester


World Champion Irvine Marked Man in First World Cup of the 2014 Season

Scratch World Champion, Martyn Irvine, wearing the coveted Rainbow Striped jersey in the Scratch Race at the Track Cycling World Cup in Manchester rode strongly, but was unable to escape from the bunch to match the gold medal he won in the Points Race last night, when he became Ireland’s first rider to win a gold medal in a World Cup. With this World Cup being the first of the 2014 Track Cycling Season, Ireland has started the campaign strongly.

Following the outstanding performances of the Irish Team yesterday, today’s results weren’t so favourable. Irvine finished the Scratch race in 18th position, in a race where he was a marked man.

Speaking at the track Head Coach Brian Nugent said “Martyn was marked out of it. He was wearing the rainbow jersey, so this is what is expected of you, when you are the world champion in an event. With 5 laps to go he put in a big turn, but you can’t do that and go and win the sprint.”

Ryan, who previously won a bronze medal in the World Championships in the Points Race, narrowly missed the winning break in the event today, finishing in 14th place. Ryan finished the Pursuit in 5th place yesterday in the Individual Pursuit.

Speaking about Ryan, Nugent said “Caroline did a great race yesterday to finish 5th. We need to keep getting these top 10 results to qualify for the World Championships. We won’t win every time, but we need to be strategic in entering events, and target as many events as possible. We came here to get points for the World Championships, and already both Caroline and Martyn have almost enough points for the worlds.”

Eoin Mullen raced in the Sprint event this morning, finishing in a time of 10.199, putting him in 27th place, less than 0.1seconds outside the qualifying round for the second round.

Nugent said “this was an excellent time from Eoin. It is the best time he has done at sea level.”

Speaking about the first World Cup of the 2014 Track season Nugent said “last night was a great start. So far this has been a brilliant start to the 2014 campaign, Martyn got gold in the Points Race, and a few weeks ago got Bronze in the Omnium, which was a great result. The key thing is they have pulled in valuable qualifying points for the world championships. Job done for everyone this weekend, job done in Manchester, I’m very pleased.”

The World Cup ran from the 1st – 3rd November in Manchester, UK.

RESULTS:

Men’s Scratch Race

1.       Andreas Muller (Austria)

2.       Elia Viviani (Italy)

3.       Jonathan Mould (GBR)

18th Martyn Irvine (Ireland)

Women’s Points Race

1.       Laura Brown (CAN)

2.       Elizabeth Newell (USA)

3.       Wan Yiu JamieWong (HKB)

14th Caroline Ryan (IRL)

Men’s Sprint

1.       Robert Forstemann (GER)

2.       Njisane Nicholas Phillip (TRI)

3.       Shane Perkins (JAY)

27th Eoin Mullen (IRL)

Official World Cup Website: http://www.trackworldcup.co.uk/  

Cycling Ireland Website: www.cyclingireland.ie           

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