2026 U23 & Junior European Track Championships - Selection Criteria

Selection for 2026 Junior and Under 23 UEC European Track Championships

The 2026 UEC Junior and Under 23 European Track Championships returns to Cottbus in Germany over 7th-12th July this summer.

Expressions of interest for selection are now invited for Juniors and Under 23’s, with a closing date of midnight on Monday 8th June and selections to follow that week.

Over the years the large semi-covered concrete 333m track has been a regular host of both this event, and other international track GP’s. The team’s 2024 outing at this event last time in Cottbus saw Lucy Benezet Minns become European Champion in the Junior Women’s Points Race.

Selections will take place in the accordance with National Team Selection Policy available here and the expression of interest form can be found here.

Please note access to the expression of interest form is automated, and the closing date is midnight Monday 8th June, and late submissions of expressions of interest won’t be possible.

The technical guide for the event is available on the UEC Website here. Any queries regarding selection can be addressed to riders’ usual contacts in Cycling Ireland HPU covering track at Junior and Under 23 level, (Dan Henchy, Stuart Balfour and Martyn Irvine) or alternatively via selection@cyclingireland.ie

HPU Focussed on Road World Championships this Season

This week Cycling Ireland’s High Performance Unit (HPU) are pleased to share the news that they will be fully focussed on this year’s UCI Road World Championships across all categories.

Last year the team split its attention between the Road World Championships with the elite men in Rwanda, and then a week later the other categories had a tilt at the UEC European Championships in Drome-Ardeche, France but will not follow a similar pattern this year.

For this season High Performance Director Iain Dyer explained the change; “Obviously the pinnacle event in the calendar is the UCI Road World Championships, and where possible we’d like to support our riders working towards that. Rwanda was a bit of an exceptional case last year, so in seeking out an alternative we settled on the UEC European Championships for other categories, but as we saw they were also pretty demanding courses and in addition, splitting our resources was very challenging for us and still maintain our standards for delivering a well-supported event.”

“This year looks similar in the sense that both the Montreal and Slovenian courses look very demanding and attritional once again, but as they follow on from one another splitting ourselves in two in order to deliver two championships back to back stretches our capabilities too far to support everyone to the high standards we expect of ourselves. Therefore, we have come to the conclusion to solely focus on the Worlds this year. We also feel comfortable that anyone that has the capability to go well at the Euro’s will clearly be in the same position for the Worlds, so let’s focus on that.”

The HPU felt sharing this information early will allow riders to plan accordingly. Dyer continued, “It’s definitely a concern that there’s still a number of good races in Europe leading right up to Montreal’s first day of racing, so with our own team travel kicking in from 17th September in waves it’s important that Junior and Under 23 riders understand the need to be available for Dublin group travel from this date and work with us and their teams to carve out availability should they be selected. I would urge anyone this may apply to get in touch through their regular contacts in the team, be it Neill, Martyn, Stuart or Michael to begin a conversation with us on that at the earliest opportunity. Availability could affect selection for sure if teams aren’t releasing riders at a time we consider appropriate for performing. We’re not putting in this effort to be second best through someone arriving just in time."

Dyer confirmed that accommodation and logistics planning have already been underway for some time lead by High Performance Operations Manager Michael O’Rourke, and that the team are pleased with how it’s coming together.

Head Coach Neill Delahaye that managed the team in Rwanda last year noted, “We pulled together an exceptional team for Rwanda last year, and worked very closely with a few of the World Tour Teams in building our own staff support. We were one of the very few teams not to experience any food related sickness that went around and having a WT chef with us was invaluable in supporting the performance ambitions of the team. It was the same for physio and carer supports as well, and all of the feedback we received for doing a great job was very satisfying. We are going to build on this for Montreal and so being able to pull riders from other categories into that environment promises to make it an exceptional experience.”

There’s no getting away from the demanding nature of the Montreal course, which will utilise the regular Montreal GP course featuring the Mount Royal Park loop. It promises to be a very attritional parcours. Delahaye said: "Sadly for our sprint oriented riders, it won’t be a course for them once again this year. They seem to be getting a raw deal at Championship level on the road at the moment, and indeed for the near future as well, but for riders that can tolerate repeated climbs and descend well it will be a good course for them. Certainly, it will provide some worthy winners and we hope we can be in the mix."

UCI Montreal World Championships takes place over 20th – 27th September, with more information available here. Athlete quotas have already been qualified via last seasons performances, but are due to be confirmed by the UCI in the coming month, following an assessment of national federation uptake.