Olympic qualifying heads to LA

Cycling Column:Three Irish riders will this weekend attempt to take their Olympic qualification hopes a step further when they compete in the Los Angeles round of the track World Cup.

During the previous round in Beijing, Irish road race champion David O'Loughlin took 4.5 seconds off his national record when he posted a time of four minutes 25.31 seconds for the 4,000 metre individual pursuit. This saw him finish seventh out of 30 riders.

O'Loughlin believes that a top-seven place in the world rankings should qualify him for the Games, and consequently needs another good performance in today's heats and finals of the pursuit.

His confidence will have been boosted by his showing at the last World Cup and he will aim to further improve his record. He will also ride the scratch race tomorrow.

Pezula team-mate Morgan Fox narrowly missed out on qualifying for the points race final on his track World Cup debut in Beijing. He will ride in that event today and also compete in tomorrow's kilometre time trial.

The third Irish rider, Louise Moriarty, lines out in Los Angeles after recent strong performances in Australian track events. She is likely to ride today's scratch race and tomorrow's points race.

To road racing, and, following their strong performances in the Jelajah Malaysia event, Paul Griffin and David McCann have returned to Ireland and are training hard.

Griffin was fourth on the first stage of the Asian race, eighth on the toughest mountain leg, seventh overall and fourth in the mountains classification. He will line out in the 2.HC-ranked Tour de Langkawi on February 9th.

Giant Asia team-mate McCann is, however, likely to miss the race as he and his wife, Nuala, are expecting their first child in February.

He was satisfied with his performance in the Jelajah event, where he finished second on the Genting mountain stage, third overall in the mountains competition and 10th in general classification.

In other news, women's training camps will be held in Avon Ri resort in Blessington, Co Wicklow, on January 26th-27th and February 23rd-24th. Paddy Doran, Scott McDonald, Aidan Ryan and Aidan Hammond will be coaching, while other speakers will include sports physiologists Antonia Rossiter and Niamh Fitzpatrick, plus nutritionist Beth McCluskey.

The €100 fee (€50 for juniors) includes accommodation, one four-course dinner and two lunches.

For more information or to sign up, call Alex on 085 7399603.

FIXTURES

Sunday:MTB XCO winter league race, Castle Park, Bangor, starts 11.30am. Winter Trail Quest League, Shimna Valley Home, Bryansford Road, Newcastle, 10.30am. Leinster youth training camp, Bray Wheelers clubhouse, 10am. Call Gerard Campbell for details: 086 8192205.