Cycling Ireland has announced a considerable increase in rider selections for this month’s UCI cyclocross World Cup round in Dublin, with 17 riders picked to represent the country on November 26th.
National champion Dean Harvey will join with Jamie Meehan, Travis Harkness and Tadhg Killeen in competing in the under-23 men’s event. An equivalent race will not be held for women, but four riders from that age category will instead ride the elite women’s event. These are Caoimhe May, Darcy Harkness, Roisin Lally and Doirean Kileen.
There are six named for the junior men’s race, namely Joseph Mullen, David Gaffney, Conor Murphy, Cameron Henry, Michael Collins and Cal Tutty. Aine Doherty, Aliyah Rafferty and Greta Lawless will contest the junior women’s contest.
The cyclocross development squad of Cycling Ireland’s off-road commission made the selection.
The World Cup is being held in Dublin for the second year running and is a major boost for Irish cycling. It will take place on the Sport Ireland campus and will see many of the top names in the sport travel to Ireland for what is the fifth round of this year’s series.
Other Irish riders will likely also compete, albeit as club riders. There will also be a number of non-UCI support races held on Saturday, November 25th. Last year the elite races were the only ones which were part of the World Cup, with the youth races being UCI-ranked C2 events.
As a result, a smaller Team Ireland squad of just five riders lined out in the World Cup races, namely Harvey, Lally, Chris Dawson, Darnell Moore and Maria Larkin. Other Irish riders competed in their club colours.
Attendance was affected by freezing temperatures and difficult roadconditions that weekend, but an estimated 8,000 spectators were inattendance.
Tickets for this year’s World Cup are on sale at www.ucicyclocrossworldcup.com
