Fourth Place For Felix In Hong Kong Track World Cup

Irish cyclist Felix English came agonisingly close to a medal at the UCI Track Cycling World Cup in Hong Kong today, finishing in fourth place in the scratch race. English followed this with a seventh place in the points race, showing that he means business on the track. Both events were won by French rider Benjamin Thomas. Earlier this morning the Women's Team Pursuit finished in tenth place after an error by the time keepers forced them to restart after already racing 3km. In the points race Caroline Ryan finished 9th, while Lydia Boylan was 16th in the scratch race. The World Cup in Hong Kong is the final one before the Track Cycling World Championships in London in March. Racing runs from Friday 15th to Sunday 17th January.

In the scratch race English found himself at the front of the race, after a blistering pace was set from the start. Speaking from the Velodrome he said "it was a really tough race and the pace was constantly high. I felt strong throughout and was in the front split of 6 at the end of the race. Unfortunately I made a tactical mistake with 2 laps to go and missed out on a medal."

English raced on the track as a junior rider, before becoming a professional road racer. Despite just missing out on a medal, the UK based rider has a strong future in track cycling ahead of him, having progressed quickly over the past few months since his transition from road racing. The promising performance is all the sweeter given the rocky journey English has been on over the past year and a half. Speaking about the transition to the track English said "it was difficult at first mainly due to the injuries I've had over the last 18 months (2 broken hands, a badly broken wrist and a car crash!) but David (Muntaner) has brought me, and all of the other guys on the team, on a hell of a lot. The quick progression over the past 3 months wouldn't have been possible without him."

For the women racing in the team pursuit there were mixed emotions with the tenth place finish. While relatively happy with their time of 4.35.77, a faster time would have been possible had they not been forced to restart their race. Cycling Ireland Technical Director Brian Nugent said "the commissaires put 12 laps on the board instead of 16 and stopped the team a kilo early. It was very frustrating and it meant we had to restart at the end. After already completing 3kms and having to go again wasn't really ideal, but there wasn't any other option at that point."

Nugent was pleased with English's racing saying "Felix was in super form and raised the team with his efforts. He looked very good out there, I was sure at one point he would get a medal but he will in the future. He had a lot of good riders under pressure."

Next up for the Irish team is the the Men's Sprint and Women's Keirin on Sunday, where Eoin Mullen and Shannon McCurley continue with their bid for Olympic qualifying points. The Hong Kong World Cup runs from 15th-17th January, the below schedule lists races in local time as well as Irish time.