Cycling:The official announcement of which three riders who will represent Ireland in cycling's Olympic road race on July 28th won't now be made until next week, after a last minute appeal was lodged late on Thursday.
Cycling Ireland confirmed to The Irish Timeson Friday that Dan Martin, Nicolas Roche and David McCann had originally been selected, with the 21-year-old Sam Bennett being named as a reserve.
However Irish national time trial and road race champion Matt Brammeier has appealed this, feeling that he deserves a slot. A five-person selection panel will consider the appeal which, under the criteria, can only have weight if due process and/or selection procedures weren’t followed or if there was bias or undue influence.
That panel has until Sunday to decide if there are grounds for an appeal, and until Monday to make its ruling. If it determines that Brammeier’s argument is justified, the original three-person selection panel will be asked to consider the selection once again. In that case a final decision will be made by next Friday, or possibly earlier.
One of the three riders selected for the road race will also do the time trial on August 1st.
Cycling Ireland’s selection criteria was published last December and laid out the conditions for consideration to the three vacant slots which had been secured via Ireland’s world ranking.
The first condition was that the riders being considered had to have scored UCI points in 2011 in races other than the national championships.
That narrowed things down to seven riders, namely the top-ranked Irishman Dan Martin, who ended 2011 ranked ninth in the UCI’s top World Tour rankings, his first cousin Roche, Bennett, McCann, Brammeier, Philip Deignan
and the domestic-based Irish rider Adam Armstrong.
Cycling Ireland had drawn up a table awarding set points for top 10 finishes in UCI one-day races and on stages of longer events. In addition to those points, up to 100 points were available to each rider, depending on the more subjective assessment of the selectors in relation to how they could do on the London Olympics course.
Martin’s strong year thus far made his selection a certainty. Nicolas Roche was ranked only fourth behind Martin, Bennett and McCann in terms of performance-linked points, but his past history – which includes second places on stages of the Tour de France and Vuelta a Espana, as well as a stage win in last year’s Tour of Beijing – makes it difficult to see him left off the squad.
McCann is 39 and in the final year of his international career, while Bennett is 21 and hoping to step up to a full pro contract in 2013 or beyond. Both scored criteria points with their performances in races such as the An Post Rás while Brammeier and Deignan – who are often called on to assist their team-mates and thus have limited scope to gather personal results – have no criteria points.
As a result, their only chance to gain a place on the London Olympics road race team was via the subjective points which could be allocated on their perceived ability to perform at the Games.
The three-man selection panel comprises An Post Rás director Dermot Dignam, international commissaire Paul Watson and Dr Giles Warrington of Dublin City University’s School of Health and Human Performance.
The five-person Cycling Ireland Selection Appeal Panel (CISAP) are Richard Archibold from the Sport Institute of Northern Ireland, the law practitioner Aideen Collard, Swim Ireland high performance director Shane Keane, who formerly worked with the Irish Sports Council, Cycling Ireland board member Anto Moran and Anthony Walsh, who has a Masters in Sports Law.
The cost of the appeal is €250. Brammeier is represented by the agent Andrew McQuaid, the son of UCI president Pat McQuaid.
