Caroline Ryan loses out on Olympics points hunt
Caroline Ryan seen here in green competing on the track in the European Championships.
Caroline Ryan, who won a bronze medal at the World Track Cycling Championships last month has lost out on the chance to qualify for the Olympics.
It was always going to be a tall order for the Garda from Johnstownbridge seeing as she effectively had to change emphasis from track cycling with its shorter bursts of intensity, to road cycling.
Over the past few weeks she, and a number of other top Irish female cyclists have been chasing points in a variety of races in Belfast, Quebec in Canada and the famous Valkenburg Hills Classic in the Netherlands in an attempt to get an allocation for Ireland.
Only if they got enough points to qualify as cyclists would one of them then be picked to go.
However, none of the women managed to pick up any points, despite going reasonably well in several of the races.
Caroline’s father Willie told the Leinster Leader that she had been battling the effects of a chest infection for the past few weeks and wasn’t at her best.
She finished outside the points in Belfast and the first race in Quebec. In the second one, she finished in the main bunch, but the points winners were in another group ahead.
The Valkenburg Hills Classic last Friday with its multiple sharp hills didn’t suit her at all and she pulled out before the end. That is not terribly surprising given her recent concentration on flat track cycling.
There is still a possibility that Ireland could get a ‘wildcard’ entry to the games and the results of that process should be known next week.
For the moment, she will now the concentrating on the Irish National Road Championships at the end of June, the World Championships in September and the European Police Championship which are also in September.
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Weather for Naas, Ireland
Monday 20 May 2013
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