Track Worlds - 18-22 February - Saint Quentin En Yvelines - France

Beasty

The 2015 Track World championships start on Wednesday with the qualifications for the 2 team pursuits. The Irish women's team will be hoping to improve their national record while picking up more qualification points towards Rio. The ladies team is:

Lydia Boylan
Lauren Creamer
Josie Knight
Caroline Ryan
Mel Spath

Caroline should also be taking part in the Omnium on Saturday and Sunday

Ireland have also qualified one lady for the scratch race, but as that clashes with the Omnium I suspect one of the other ladies will get a chance in that one

In the men's team are:

Martyn Irvine
Eoin Mullen
Ryan Mullen
Javan Nulty

The men's scratch race takes place on Thursday - it will be interesting to see whether Martyn does that as his Omnium is on Friday and Saturday - may be that Javan is given a chance to see what he can do in this non-Olympic event. Ryan's IP is on Saturday with Eoin in the Sprint on Sunday

There will be live coverage on the BBC, although some of it will be on the red button

Official website is here, and entries as well as results will be confirmed here

eeeee

There's live coverage on the UCI channel on youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B17g1_sDH28&spfreload=10

Harrybelafonte

There will go pro type camera footage in this Worlds.

Beasty

Ladies finished 16th in the pursuit, about a second outside their national record (which they would have needed to improve by a couple of seconds to improve their ranking)

Coverage of the evening session should be on the BBC red button and the UCI Youtube Channel from 7pm

Esroh

Trackies .
Why in the Team pusuit were there what looked like inflatable bollards on the blue area. But in the Team sprint they were allowed ride there.

Beasty

Those sponges are only placed on the bends - basically if you go onto the "cote d'azure" you are shortening the event and they are there to "remind" pursuiters to stay on the track. Having set taht if they inadvertantly drop down and hit them they are not DSQ'd (unless they are considered to be doing it deliberately)

In the case of the sprinters it's often head to head (not in the team sprint I acknowledge) and racers can get forced off the track. Hence they don't use them other than in the pursuit events. Again though anyone deliberately looking to take a short cut by dropping below the official part of the track is liable to disqualification.

What has started happening in the team sprint (and indeed at the start of the pursuit) is the rider in the starting gate will head inwards and onto the cote d'azure as it effectively creates a downward slope allowing a bit more acceleration at the start

Esroh

Beasty wrote: »

Those sponges are only placed on the bends - basically if you go onto the "cote d'azure" you are shortening the event and they are there to "remind" pursuiters to stay on the track. Having set taht if they inadvertantly drop down and hit them they are not DSQ'd (unless they are considered to be doing it deliberately)

In the case of the sprinters it's often head to head (not in the team sprint I acknowledge) and racers can get forced off the track. Hence they don't use them other than in the pursuit events. Again though anyone deliberately looking to take a short cut by dropping below the official part of the track is liable to disqualification.

What has started happening in the team sprint (and indeed at the start of the pursuit) is the rider in the starting gate will head inwards and onto the cote d'azure as it effectively creates a downward slope allowing a bit more acceleration at the start

Thank you. . enjoyed the coverage tonight. Thought the crossing wheel rule which undid NZ sprint team seems so harsh.

Beasty

Esroh wrote: »

Thank you. . enjoyed the coverage tonight. Thought the crossing wheel rule which undid NZ sprint team seems so harsh.

Haha! - stopped watching as soon as I saw them win - didn't lknow they had been relegated until I saw your post. Was it on a changeover? They have to be strict otherwise your strongest rider can get away with doing too much. There's no margin for error with something like that - thay have to apply it strictly otherwise it ends up with a risk of allegations of favouritism

Beasty

Martyn Irvine goes in the scratch in about half an hour

Lusk_Doyle

Cracking win in the Kerin! Some power to come through like that.

Lusk_Doyle

And they are off!

Glass Prison 1214

Irvine 14th, he missed out on the crucial break.

Lusk_Doyle

Glass Prison 1214 wrote: »

Irvine 14th, he missed out on the crucial break.

Yes. Bad positioning after doing some good work early on.

Beasty

Once things clearly were not going to go for him I think he probably started having tomorrow on his mind. If he had got in the right break I am sure he would have given it a go, but this event is (this year anyway) secondary as it carries no Olympic qualification points

Lusk_Doyle

Beasty wrote: »

Once things clearly were not going to go for him I think he probably started having tomorrow on his mind. If he had got in the right break I am sure he would have given it a go, but this event is (this year anyway) secondary as it carries no Olympic qualification points

Makes sense.

bazermc

Any Irish in action today or this evening?

Is that Mel Spath, Ryan Sherlocks missus?

Beasty

bazermc wrote: »

Any Irish in action today or this evening?

Martyn Irvine goes in the first day of the Omnium

bazermc wrote: »

Is that Mel Spath, Ryan Sherlocks missus?

Yes

Beasty

A disappointing 20th in the scratch but improved with 9th place in the pursuit for Martyn. The elimination race is the later on in the evening session

bazermc

Coverage only on the red button this evening so can't sky plus it and watch it back when kids go to bed.

ryan_sherlock

bazermc wrote: »

Any Irish in action today or this evening?

Is that Mel Spath, Ryan Sherlocks missus?

Yeah - my wife - as some of you may know, she has a bad case of iliac artery endofibrosis (http://cyclingtips.com.au/2011/11/exercise-induced-arterial-endofibrosis/). Learning the boards this year (the issue is why she didn't race much in 2014). Operation (hopefully) soon. She talked a little about it in June: http://melaniespath.blogspot.com.es/2014/06/european-xc-marathon-championships-2014.html

Very common in female cyclists, we have several friends who had to be operated on.

[And to answer a common question, we were both non-cyclists when we met]

blobbie

bazermc wrote: »

Coverage only on the red button this evening so can't sky plus it and watch it back when kids go to bed.

UCI YouTube channel carries it live and will have today's races available tomorrow for catchup

kumate_champ07

the German guy who won scatch gold won omnium gold at the International GP in Sundrive last summer. Martyn Irvine was very close to gold that day by almost gaining a lap in the points race, which was more difficult to do considering a lap at Sundrive is 460m compared to 250m indoors, and the German had a fellow national rider helping him!

slightly OT but that points race last summer was unbelievable, alot of respect to all the 'ordinary' riders who hung in there with 2 world champions!

CramCycle

ryan_sherlock wrote: »

Yeah - my wife - as some of you may know, she has a bad case of iliac artery endofibrosis

I never knew that, in a way it's lucky she is at that level it would be noticed. I presume at a lower level many would put it down to training not working out and packing it in. Do you know if you pack in the training at early onset is it reversible? I realise at later stages it wouldn't be.

[And to answer a common question, we were both non-cyclists when we met]

That question popped into my head when someone asked about the two of you.

Beasty

Great start for Caroline Ryan with 3rd place in the Omnium scratch race - she was one of only 4 to take a lap on the field - next up for her is he pursuit, althought Irvine is due to do the TT before that

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G'wan Caroline! Looking like she's in good form heading into it. Good luck Martyn!

Beasty

14th in the TT for Martyn - by my reckoning that leaves him in equal 16th with the flying lap and points race to go

Beasty

10th in the pursuit for Caroline - think that puts her equal 5th. Laura Trott is breathing down her neck 2 points behind though and will be a strong favourite in the elimination race later on

Martyn has the flying lap shortly then Ryan Mullen should be going in the IP qualification to bring the afternoon session to an end

Beasty

Jack Bobridge is an early starter in the IP, but sets a time of just over 4m 16.2s. That would beat last year's fastest time by nearly 5 seconds!

Beasty

7th for Ryan Mullen. His time was just a fraction slower than last year, but this year one or two big-hitters returned to give it a go making it more difficult to qualify for the medal matches (he would have needed to knock nearly a second of the national record to get into the top 4)

Beasty

Rain stops play - well a dodgy air conditioning unit anyway - full details of the BBC red button. No idea at this stage when the evening session will re-start

ryan_sherlock

CramCycle wrote: »

I never knew that, in a way it's lucky she is at that level it would be noticed. I presume at a lower level many would put it down to training not working out and packing it in. Do you know if you pack in the training at early onset is it reversible? I realise at later stages it wouldn't be.

It doesn't get better by stopping but it wouldn't get worse. I would bet that a lot of riders pulled out early because they were getting worse without knowing the underlying issue.

Mel's use of the Garmin Vectors (left/right power balance) - speed up the prognosis.

Beasty

Carolline Ryan next up in the scratch

bazermc

Jeeze the size of that Dutch girl. !!!!

Beasty

Just to summarise all five Irish performances today:

Eoin Mullen qualified for the 16th finals of the sprint where he lost out to 3rd fastest qualifier Edward Dawkins of NZ

Ryan Mullen took a very respectable 7th place in the Individual Pursuit

Martyn Irvine is probably a little disappointed to finish 17th in the Omnium but should still pick up some very important Olympic qualification points as a result

Caroline Ryan is in 10th place moving into the second day of her Omnium having taken 19th place in the Scratch race in teh middle of her Omnium events today

Beasty

A disappointing 20th for Caroline in the TT - that will drop her a couple of places in the overall rankings

Beasty

The on bike coverage in the women's kierin was pretty impressive. Showing how a rider moved up and other riders trying to grab a wheel. Then there was the attention of some to everything that was going on around them, looking over their shoulder while racing at 60+ km/h with 2 or 3 riders within a few centimetres was particularly impressive

Skill Magill

Just watching the madison, how they keep going and not crash is beyond me, really impressive, a huge amount of skill and stamina.

Lusk_Doyle

Skill Magill wrote: »

Just watching the madison, how they keep going and not crash is beyond me, really impressive, a huge amount of skill and stamina.

55kph average speed too. It's a great event and fun to keep track of with the laps up and down and also the points situation.

This was a great one and the finish was class.

It's a big shame that this is no longer an olympic event.

eeeee

Really shyte news for the Chinese cycling team:
http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/latest-news/chinese-track-team-lose-20000-of-bikes-to-thieves-159388