Irish Team Pursuits Continue To Improve At 2015 UCI Track Cycling World Cup

Cycling Ireland's male and female team pursuit squads continued to improve at the final World Cup of the season, in Cali, Colombia. With the top eight teams from the qualifying rounds of the Team Pursuit progressing to the next rounds, the Irish team who finished 11th and 18th in the women and men's Team Pursuit qualifiers respectively will not contest the finals today. This is the third and final World Cup on the Track Cycling 2014/15 calendar, with more valuable Olympic qualification points available.

The Women's Team Pursuit of Caroline Ryan, Lydia Boylan, Lauren Creamer and Josie Knight rode a solid race, finishing in a time of 4.42.731, just outside the top ten, and within 2 seconds of qualifying for the next round. With the Velodrome in Cali being partially outdoors, the times can be slower than normally achieved.

The Men's Team Pursuit of Martyn Irvine, Ryan Mullen, Cormac Clarke and Sean Downey performed strongly over the 4km race against the clock, finishing in a time of 4.13.214. Competition was tight for the qualifying places, so this time put them within 5 seconds of qualifying for the next round. The ranking for the Team Pursuit squads will be available after the final overall positions of the teams have been determined today.

Speaking from Cali Head Coach of Cycling Ireland Brian Nugent said "All in all we had two solid rides from both teams today. We had a tall order this year, with adding the team pursuits to our squad, it's a big undertaking and as I said before it is a steep learning curve, but both teams are showing that they are adapting to the demands. It's been great to see the progression throughout this world cup season."

Racing continues today, Saturday, with Ryan and Irvine competing in the Omnium events. Top Irish sprinter Eoin Mullen will also compete in the Men's Keirin. This World Cup does not feature any of the Class 1 additional events that were featured in London last month, meaning the focus is solely on Olympic class events. The World Cup runs from 16th - 18th January.