TrackCycling.ie

Selection Event for Ladies Jun/U23 
On Saturday 4th July the Track Commission ran a selction event at Sundrive Road for a team to be sent to race at a UK Track Meet in Meadowbank, Edinburgh this coming August.

Meadowbank in an outdoor 250m wooden track of the same steepness as Manchester, so experience on indoor velodromes would be essential. Rain delayed the start, but with our new surface at Sundrive, the track dried quickly. There was a massive headwind down the back straight and this did hamper some of the riders on delivering their best efforts, but an outstanding 200 by Rachel Mitchell (NDCC) saw her equal the standard set by Cycling Ireland for a ‘Flying 200’ record by Junior women when she posted the fastest time of the day with 14.60 sec.

Next off was the Standing Start 500m TT whith Ailbhe Ivory setting a new Irish Record when he time of 45.84 sec was inside the standard set by CI in May this year for Records by Junior women, where no records previously existed. Her joy however was shortlived as Rachel Mitchell set the fastest time of the day taking a full 3 secords off the standard. But as they say, records are there to be broken, and it is great to have such targets for the riders to measure themselves against. It must also be remembered that these times were set outdoors, in less than ideal weather conditions, and these times will be bettered when these riders get an opportunity to post indoor times. It should also be noted that both TTs are quite technical and all riders will benifit greatly by further coaching on these disciplines and this is very much the case for the two Navan riders.

Last event was the 15 lap scratch race and we mixed in some senior women to liven this up. This was one of the best womens races I have ever seen at Sundrive. A rapid pace with an attack on practically every lap, mostly into the wind. All attacks were shut down quickly before any significant gap could be established. There was a good mixture of riders riding aggressively and a couple who rode intelligently, saving their efforts for one big push. Rachel Withers was one such rider, and she launched her attack a lap out, and it looked like she was going to stretch it out and hold it to the line, but Bray’s, Ailbhe Ivory, came our of the bunch with a well timed effort to deny Rachel. The last lap was timed at 32sec and that is seriously fast for 460m!

Rachel Mitchell had intended to have another go at the Flying 200 at the end of the meet, but there was nothing left in her or indeed anyone’s tank – she like all the other riders had given their all.

We will provide training & coaching for the 5 riders we are sending to Edinburgh and these 5 Juniors will be competing for National Titles accross many disciplines for many years to come.

Team Selected
Ailbhe Ivory, Rachel Mitchell, Rachel Withers, Fiona Guihan, Heather Beirne