IrishCycling.com Road Racing News and Pictures

 Welcome to our Voluntary, Ad-free, Tracking free website  | HOME | FIXTURES | PHOTOS | VIDEOS | OLD ARCHIVES | |

  FRONT PAGE 
 
 ROAD RACING
 
 STAGE RACING
 
 OTHER CYCLING
 Women's Cycling
 Paracycling
 Track Racing
 E-Racing
 Coaching Advice
 Sundry Items
 
 OFF-ROAD EVENTS
 
 NON-COMPETITIVE
 
 PICTURE GALLERY
 
 VIDEO ARCHIVE
 
 RACING CALENDAR
 
 LEISURE EVENTS
Shane Stokes
Latest Headlines
IRVINE FINISHES THIRTEENTH OVERALL IN OLYMPIC OMNIUM
NEW IRISH RECORD FOR RYAN IN TRACK WORLDS
IRVINE REACTS AFTER TAKING OLYMPIC PLACE WITH SEVENTH-PLACE FINISH IN WORLDS
BRONZE MEDAL FOR RYAN IN TRACK WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
IRVINE AND RYAN BEGIN WORLD TRACK CHAMPIONSHIPS THURSDAY
Search


OTHER CYCLING : Track Racing : Shane Stokes Last Updated: 2 Apr 2018 - 8:45:17 PM

IRISH TEAM PURSUIT TEAM FIFTH IN WORLD CUP, BREAK NATIONAL RECORD
By Shane Stokes
14 Feb 2009,

Email this article
Ireland’s track riders showed their strong ongoing progress when they broke the national record and finished a fine fifth overall in the team pursuit at the Copenhagen round of cycling’s track World Cup today.

The quartet of David O’Loughlin, David McCann, Paul Healion and Martyn Irvine covered the 4000 metre distance in a time of four minutes 11.587 seconds, finishing just 0.879 seconds off fourth place and what would have been a place in the ride-offs for the bronze medal.

Olympic champions Great Britain were quickest in a time of 4 minutes 4.08 seconds.

The Irish time set was over two seconds faster than the national record set by the team one month ago in the Beijing World Cup, en route to seventh overall there.

The team will be greatly encouraged by their strong progress and the fact that they beat established squads Belgium, the Netherlands, the 100% ME team and France.

They could arguably have gone quicker had O’Loughlin not been riding flat out on two occasions yesterday. He finished second-quickest in the individual pursuit qualifiers yesterday morning, then returned to the velodrome in the evening to take an excellent silver medal. It’s likely he was slightly fatigued this morning.

Irishcycling.com understands that the quartet had to set a time of four minutes 11 seconds to secure carding. It is unknown if O’Loughlin’s efforts yesterday can be taken into account, given that the team was just over 0.5 seconds off that target, or if the criteria will be rigidly applied.

The rate of progression of the team certainly suggests that more speed is on the way; just over a year ago, the national record stood at four minutes 15 seconds.

---------

Track World Cup 08-09 Round 5, Copenhagen, Denmark, February 13-15:

Day two, men's team pursuit qualification:

1, Great Britain (Steven Burke, Edward Clancy, Robert Hayles, Peter Kennaugh) 4 mins 4.08 seconds (58.997 km/h)
2, Spain (Unai Elorriaga Zubiaur, Sergi Escobar Roure, David Muntaner Juaneda, Eloy Teruel Rovira) 4, mins 8.465 secs
3, Denmark (Michael Faerk Christensen, Daniel Kreutzfeldt, Jenserik Madsen, Christian Ranneries) 4 mins 8.924 secs
4, Lokomotiv (Artur Ershov, Valery Kaikov, Leonid Krasnov, Vladimir Shchekunov) 4 mins 10.708 secs
5, Ireland (Paul Healion, Martyn Irvine, David McCann, David O'Loughlin) 4 mins 11.597 secs
6, Belgium (Dominique Cornu, Kenny De Ketele, Ingmar De Poortere, Tim Mertens) 4 mins 11.976 secs


(first four teams square off in the gold/silver, and bronze medal finals later. Ireland finishes fifth in the final standings).

Back to top of Page

© Copyright IrishCycling.com



Footer

Copying prohibited, All contents © IrishCycling.com 2000 - 2023. All rights reserved. || Disclaimer || About || Contact Us || Home ||