Cycling Ireland’s high performance director Iain Dyer has hailed some strong performances during the Irish team’s campaign at the UCI Nations Cup in Glasgow.
Dyer, who took up the role in February after spending 21 years with British Cycling, pointed to the fifth place performance by Ireland’s team pursuiters as the top result. Kelly Murphy, Mia Griffin, Emily Kay and Alice Sharpe recorded a time of four minutes 19.738 seconds while beating Poland in the first round.
“The highlight had to be the women’s team pursuit national record. It was a very competitive ride and demonstrated good progress over the winter,” Dyer said, referring to the improvement of almost a second and a half over their previous best time. “It was also good to see strong performances in the women’s omnium and Madison, which are also key Olympic disciplines for us.”
Griffin finished seventh in the women’s omnium on Saturday, having led the competition after the second of four rounds. Kay and Sharpe finished seventh in the Madison on Sunday despite a crash.
Dyer does however see room for improvement elsewhere. “In some of our other events however the level of the Nations Cup shows we still have some work to do as the season moves forwards towards the European Championships in August and World Championships in October.”
Next up for the team is the second Nations Cup meet, which will be held between May 12th and 15th in Canada. That will see Orla Walsh compete with the squad, having worked hard at the sprint events at the UCI’s World Cycling Centre over the past year.
“It will be Orla’s first Nations Cup this season in women’s sprint and keirin,” he said. “And we’ll continue with a rotation in entries in the bunch racing amongst the woman’s endurance squad.”
