Off Road 2 Rio . com

Slideshowbob

This group has an admirable aim but have they got the blessing of Cycling Ireland? Would that not be required when it comes to World Champs / Olympics selection?

http://www.offroad2rio.com/

DirkVoodoo

Slideshowbob wrote: »

This group has an admirable aim but have they got the blessing of Cycling Ireland? Would that not be required when it comes to World Champs / Olympics selection?

http://www.offroad2rio.com/

Why don't you email them and find out?

Beasty

Whether they have their blessing or not is another matter, but they clearly acknowledge thay have not received any "assistance" from CI

The project is an athlete driven initiative set up by current Irish riders racing at elite international level without any assistance from Cycling Ireland the national governing body.

RobFowl

Slideshowbob wrote: »

This group has an admirable aim but have they got the blessing of Cycling Ireland? Would that not be required when it comes to World Champs / Olympics selection?

http://www.offroad2rio.com/

If they score enough points to get close to an Olympic place then blessings will follow

Slideshowbob

Just thinking the "project" could put alot of work in with no guarantee / assurance that those involved would be considered for selection in the national jersey.

RobFowl

Slideshowbob wrote: »

Just thinking the "project" could put alot of work in with no guarantee / assurance that those involved would be considered for selection in the national jersey.

I may be wrong but I think the person selected has to one of those scoring points. The plan here is to try to score points with 2 riders so unless someone else does something similar any place would be between the 2 of them.

Slideshowbob

Does or2r run the same risk:

http://www.stickybottle.com/latest-news/oloughlin-out-of-track-retirement-to-challenge-irvine-head-on-for-olympic-slot/

Beasty

What risk? More competition surely helps.

C3PO

Slideshowbob wrote: »

Just thinking the "project" could put alot of work in with no guarantee / assurance that those involved would be considered for selection in the national jersey.

I don't think either of the girls involved have any misapprehensions about the difficulty of the task they've set themselves but they are both very talented athletes! In fact Mel (Ryan Sherlocks better half) is the current British NPS Champion. Best of luck to them!

ryan_sherlock

We (as in the folks involved with O2R) have talked to CI about this and as RobFowl says, blessings would come. It is a bit of a HP chicken and egg problem that is being solved.

The main thing is that this needs to get started now - the qualification period is 2014-2016 but by then you really need to have strong riders (that are starting towards the front of the grid at World Cups etc...). Basically, the Top 3 scoring riders of each nation combine their points for two years (two one year counting periods), then the top 18 ranked nations get to have riders there (higher rank, more riders)... To go to the Olympics, the rider has to be one of those Top 3 counting riders(so you can't just take in a random rider last minute...).

The only two races that needs a federation support to do is the World Champs and Olympics (if you qualify a place). If you are good enough, at least in MTB, CI doesn't have an issue allowing riders to go to Worlds... (For instance, I sent myself to the Marathon Worlds a few times - not CI funded/helped, but they allowed me enter - I was good enough to be there).

Both Mel and Cait have been racing World Cups, World Champs and all sorts of races all over the world - they know the quality that they are up against but believe (and I do to) that it is more than achievable for them. (I would not have the same conviction about men's racing in Ireland - but that is another thread)

So far they have had people approach them from home and abroad with support - it is a big deal, even if it is something small like personal well wishes - helps when you are going through that 10th interval in the rain and your legs want to fall and all you can think of is slowing down.

In relation to other female riders, we are trying to get more interested - O2R needs it - everyone ups their game when surrounded by good riders. The Swiss men are an example of this - in a World Cup, 8 of the top 15 could be from Switzerland! A small country, just like Ireland.

Slideshowbob

Thanks for the input Ryan but isn't the standard Olympic standard cross country MTB race a different kettle of fish to a marathon event?

As such isn't it the case that there is no Olympic marathon MTB event, also is qualification criterial for marathon MTB worlds less strict, hence not strictly a guage for suitability for the Olympic type events?

ryan_sherlock

Slideshowbob wrote: »

Thanks for the input Ryan but isn't the standard Olympic standard cross country MTB race a different kettle of fish to a marathon event?

As such isn't it the case that there is no Olympic marathon MTB event, also is qualification criterial for marathon MTB worlds less strict, hence not strictly a guage for suitability for the Olympic type events?

Yes - true - different, but Ireland gets more than enough quota for places for the XC Worlds. (We need a lot more fast women to fill up the spots!)

Qualification for marathon worlds has actually changed a lot for 2012, but was actually similar to XC - basically your country gets a number of slots (for marathon, it was 7 I think, less for XC, but still more than 1) and your country fills them.

The actual qualification details for 2016 have not been published, but it is expected to be similar to 2012.

Slideshowbob

ryan_sherlock wrote: »

Slideshowbob wrote: »

Thanks for the input Ryan but isn't the standard Olympic standard cross country MTB race a different kettle of fish to a marathon event?

As such isn't it the case that there is no Olympic marathon MTB event, also is qualification criterial for marathon MTB worlds less strict, hence not strictly a guage for suitability for the Olympic type events?

Yes - true - different, but Ireland gets more than enough quota for places for the XC Worlds. (We need a lot more fast women to fill up the spots!)

Qualification for marathon worlds has actually changed a lot for 2012, but was actually similar to XC - basically your country gets a number of slots (for marathon, it was 7 I think, less for XC, but still more than 1) and your country fills them.

The actual qualification details for 2016 have not been published, but it is expected to be similar to 2012.

Do would you not have funded trips to the real worlds as well as the marathon worlds in previous years?

ryan_sherlock

Slideshowbob wrote: »

Do would you not have funded trips to the real worlds as well as the marathon worlds in previous years?

Mel (who has only just recently become Irish with the UCI) and I have never been funded to do anything in relation to mountain biking, Cait has had 1 or 2 races in the UK partially supported - neither of us have competed at XC Worlds (Mel, in the past would have had to do it through Germany - she met their stringent criteria for selection in 2010 but we would have had to self fund, St. Annes was just too expensive - she could not do the 2011 ones if she wanted to ride for Ireland in 2012)

Frankly, I was not fast enough in an XC race to spend €1,000+ getting myself to XC worlds (marathons are a bit of a different story). Mel is, but as I say, only starts to make sense now - still, it is a lot of money for a phd student!

morana

surely you have Ci's blessings already? you have mine if thats any help!!!

Slideshowbob

While they are trying to get go Rio they can listen to it here in the interim:

http://www.theo2.ie/event/duran-duran/