CYCLING IRELAND AGM - IRISHCYCLING.COM REPORT

A small turnout of people attended Cycling Ireland’s AGM at the Carlton Hotel on Saturday, with just 40 delegates turning up for the meeting. President Micéal Concannon was unopposed in his re-election and board members Sean Herlihy and Mark Colbert also automatically returned to their positions for the same reason.

As expected, many issues were covered at the meeting. One of the most important was the financial statements, which show that CI has recovered from the tough financial situation of several years ago. A year surplus of €142,069 was recorded, following on from €56,574 in 2005.

From the revenue end of things, state grants to the Federation accounted for €418,700. Affiliation fees of €287,924 were the next biggest source. The largest expenditures were €134,571 for wages and €103,320 for the Irish team. Coaching and underage development cost €21,257 but, given the ongoing problem with the low level of young riders in the sport, many will expect that greater funds will be allocated to this area in the future.

CI Executive Director Declan Byrne stated that membership of Cycling Ireland grew to 4,451 in 2007, with 159 clubs being affiliated. This is the highest level since the current federation came into existence and is greater than the 1990 levels. It was however stated that the biggest growth has come from the fact that CI has become the sole federation for the island of Ireland, following the amalgamation of the Northern Ireland Cycling Federation with Cycling Ulster. The fact that such a significant number of CI members are in his or her thirties [or over] shows that more needs to be done to secure the future growth of the sport here.

One aspect which should play a significant part in this is the likely construction of a velodrome across the border. Byrne’s report stated that three bids are currently being considered for the building of the indoor track, with Belfast, Newry and Newcastle the venues in question. He said that a capital investment of up to £20 million could be represented by the project.

The outdoor track at Sundrive Road is also moving forward, as is Corcaigh Park as a cycling venue. Resurfacing work is due to start next spring on the former, while a capital grant of €400,000 plus determined work from Mick Lawless has seen the approval by South Dublin county council for a 1.2 kilometre circuit to be built at the latter venue.

A downhill MTB facility plus a series of Irish on- and off-road trails are also in development.

“Applications for grants to the Department of Arts, Sports, and Tourism were successful,” said Byrne, who explained that the improving financial situation of CI made it more likely that the body will be considered for future funding. “We have got nearly 1 million euros for Sundrive road. There was previously a bit of stalemate over the track and relations broke down, but things have turned around now and we are on first name terms with the corporation.

“Two new engineers have been appointed. Six to eight weeks ago we signed over a deed to the Dublin county council and expect work to commence in March or April next year.

“As regards Corcaigh Park, that’s very exciting. There are plans to have a 1.2 kilometre circuit there like Eastway [in Britain]. We have secured 400,000 euro from the Department and it is now up for approval. There is no reason to think that it won’t be passed. We hope to use this as a flagship and replicate it in other provinces. It would be a huge turning point for the sport to help bring young people into cycling.”

CI’s board reported on a number of issues, with several sporting performances being highlighted. These included strong performances by Nicolas Roche and Philip Deignan, good track results by Irish riders, the improving standard of Irish women competing abroad, the fine achievements of the Irish paralympic team and the success of the Murphy and Gunn/Newlyn Group/M. Donnelly Sean Kelly squad.

Several key performances by MTB riders were also highlighted. Robin Seymour finished 35th in the elite XC event at the European championships and Niall Davis was 17th in the espoir race; Connor McConvey was a fine 21st in the espoir class at the MTB worlds. The country’s downhill riders went even better in 2007, with Ben Reid placing 6th in the Europeans and 14th in the world championships. He is now ranked 12th in the world. Seanan O’Riordan is showing great promise, having finished 7th junior in the European championships, 14th junior in the Worlds and 3rd in the Maxis International Cup. Glynn O’Brien took silver in the world masters championship.

While downhill is unfortunately not an Olympic sport, the efforts of the XC competitors have secured one place at next year’s Games. It is possible that Irish competitors may have a second slot in the men’s XC competition; once the world rankings are updated it will be seen if this is achievable.

However as the MTB commission report made clear, things are not at all rosy between it and Cycling Ireland at the moment. It is very critical of the funding situation, pointing out that track got in excess of €100,000 for equipment while the Irish international XCO squad got just four Mavic wheels. Track coach Simon Jones has been paid a considerable amount, yet MTB coaches Robin Seymour and Glyn O’Brien have got nothing. And, furthermore, while Seymour is the leading points scorer in Ireland’s successful bid to gain an Olympic place, he has received no funding for three years.

Team manager Geoff Seymour [his father] has told Irishcycling.com that the rider was given assurances by key CI personnel during the season that ‘something would be worked out for Robin,’ but that he was then told on Friday past that no money would actually be forthcoming. If it is the case that misleading assurances were given, it is clearly a very unsatisfactory situation.


Fees, Sponsorship and Communication:

At the meeting it was announced that licence fees and subscriptions would stay the same in 2008. There is a modification to fees for running championships in order to encourage clubs to host more events. Previously the charge was 150 euro per championship event, but under the new scheme the cost of each additional event becomes cheaper. This is especially relevant for track competition [where many championship events are run off on the same day] but will also help clubs in other disciplines. Furthermore, hosting championship races on different dates will also qualify.

Liam Walker of Murphy Surveyors Kilcullen then raised a question about sponsorship, stating that he was surprised that just €10,000 was received in 2006. Declan Byrne spoke about this, stating that sponsorship in general is very hard to get. “It’s very difficult,” he said. “We made a big effort made for Tour of Ireland and expected to get something for that, even though the organisers confirmed quite late that it was going ahead.

“The Tour of Ireland gave us details of what was going to be very big media coverage, and you would imagine it would be an easy sell with that. We got letters of release for Roche and Deignan, realising that they would be a big draw. We took on a marketing company to value the worth of that and who did presentations to several companies, but unfortunately it was too hard a sell. The presentations were in the month of July, but then you had the problems with Tour de France at the time. We were quite far down the road with two companies but both pulled out after the Tour de France.

“We got the exposure valued at €360,000 but thought we would not be able to get that from a sponsor. We brought it down to €70,000 but there was still no joy. What we have learned of late that if we get 200,000 from a corporate sponsor, CI would get just €50,000 of that while €150,000 would be spent on promoting the fact that the sponsor is involved. That seems to be the way it works now.”

Byrne said that there were two promising signs. He said that CI is actively pursuing coverage on the RTE programme OB Sport, and that the quarterly Freewheel magazine will be distributed free to all Cycling Ireland members next year, thus ensuring bigger media coverage for the sport.

He admitted that communication with members has not been good but that steps are being taken to sort this out. It is believed that Cycling Ireland hopes to redevelop its website and may also seek someone to act in the role of part-time publicity officer.

Press releases from CI have been sparse in recent years and since Kay Howard resigned from the post of results co-ordinator this summer, communication with the media has dropped further.

This theme was extended when CI was told by delegates that they felt there was a lack of information about what Frank Campbell, Tommy Evans and Brian Nugent were doing.

Miceal Concannon said that he felt it might be possible to chase funding to have a more development work in the south.


Testing, track and future

Concannon said that with all the negative publicity concerning doping, it was important to understand that over 100 tests were done in Ireland this season and that every one of these was negative. Some of this was done at the national track championships; those on the commission expressed concern that the testing officials were looking for samples from riders who had other races on the same day, thus interfering with their preparation for those later events.

They were told that it should have been made clear that a chaperone system was possible in this case, allowing the riders to be accompanied after notification of a test was given, but enabling them to wait until the end of the day before providing a sample.

In another area related to track, more details were given about the long-overdue development of Sundrive Road. Planning permission for a cycling school has been secured and the contract for the resurfacing of the outdoor velodrome has been agreed. Work will commence on the latter when decent weather is assured. Indeed, the delegates are told that this resurfacing would have gone ahead this summer had the climatic conditions been better.

This year greater emphasis has been made as regards track racing as a future international direction for Ireland’s elite and upcoming riders. Former British Cycling coach Simon Jones has been working with a number of Irish riders and this will continue in the future.

David O’Loughlin, Ciarán Power and others are the first internationals to commit to this new direction and, according to Frank Campbell, it is a good move. “Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Britain have been working in this area for a long time,” he said. “Most of their good road riders started on the track. We hope to have more testing in the future as this will give an indication as to the best direction for young riders to go in.”

Campbell stated that funding for Simon Jones’ appointment was secured through the new Institute of Sport. He said that this has been very useful and so too the help of the NCTC in Limerick, who have recently offered the services of nutritionists, psychologists and video analysts.

“The emphasis on track is a major change in direction, but I think we will only benefit from it.”

Another group which is doing a lot of track work is Ireland’s disability riders. They had a strong season and Denis Twomey of the Disability Commission was named as Cycling Ireland’s Volunteer of the Year at the annual awards on Saturday night. He has appealed for assistance in sending a squad to the Para Pan-American Open championships in Colombia next month, where a successful campaign could qualify at least one additional bike for next year’s Paralympic Games.

More on this is available by reading the Disability Commission report elsewhere on this site. Irishcycling.com would recommend studying of the various different reports from the AGM in order to get a more complete picture of the current situation in Irish cycling. These can be accessed from our home page.


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MOTIONS

A number of motions were debated at the AGM, and were then either passed, rejected or sent on for further consideration. They are as follows:

License Fees:

That those members who are in Third Level education pay a reduced licence fee to be decided by the Board of Cycling Ireland. Such applications must be accompanied by letter from the University or Collage declaring that the said applicant is in full time education. Fintona CC

- Outcome: Passed, will go to board for consideration of fee involved.


One Day Licenses:

That one day licenses should be abolished. Proposed by Murphy Surveys Kilcullen Cycling Club

- Outcome: Not seconded for consideration


That the fee for a one day license be set at €30. Proposed by Cycling Leinster:

- Outcome: not seconded for consideration



Licenses – Grading

That Riders over Forty Years of age may re-grade to Vet status at any time. Proposed by Murphy Surveys Kilcullen Cycling Club.

- Outcome: not seconded for consideration.


That Veterans will be graded V1/V2 and V3 based on points gained identical to chapter T3 Upgrading. Proposed by Cycling Ulster:

- Outcome: passed.


In time trial League events (comprising of 6 or more events) points will be awarded 3-2-1 for the overall top 3 places in the league. Proposed by Phoenix CC.

- Outcome: passed.


That all prize winners in Senior races should be awarded points in their grade. Proposed by Murphy Surveyors Kilcullen Cycling Club

- Outcome: not seconded for consideration.


That S2 riders whether placed or unplaced in S1/S2 races should accumulate S2 points. Proposed by Cycling Leinster.

- Outcome: To be studied for possibly introduction by CI road commission.


In the open Road Race events 3 points will be awarded to the first S2 and S3 unplaced rider. Proposed by Phoenix CC

- Outcome: To be studied for possibly introduction by CI road commission.


That an S2 rider on amassing 20 points (instead of current 15) will be upgraded to S1. Proposed by Usher IRC.

- Outcome: To be studied for possibly introduction by CI road commission.


That an S1 on first full year following an upgrade, and each year thereafter must obtain 10 points (instead of current 6) or revert back to S2 carrying points obtained in their last year as an S1. Proposed by Usher IRC.

- Outcome: To be studied for possibly introduction by CI road commission.


That grading rules be adjusted so that an S2 rider with 0 (zero) points at the end of a year has the option of taking a Conditional S3 license in the following year. If the rider accumulates 5 points they will be regarded to S2. if a rider gets less than 5 points on a Conditional license they may apply for a S3 license the following year. Proposed by Cycling Leinster.

- Outcome: To be studied for possibly introduction by CI road commission.


That all riders under pro contract be excluded from all races open to amateur riders with the exception of the national Championships. Proposed by Murphy Surveys Kilcullen Cycling Club.

- Outcome: FBD Insurance Rás organiser Dermot Dignam pointed out that under this wording, professionals and amateurs could not compete at the FBD Insurance Rás. He and Frank Campbell both recommended the motion be dismissed, as it was.


That Cycling Ireland will have the authority to upgrade cadet (U16) youth riders to Junior following their 16 birthday. This will only be done in exceptional circumstances and in consultation with the Youth Commission and relevant Provincial Executives. Proposed by North County Down.

- Outcome: not seconded for consideration.

That Cycling Ireland will have the authority to enter U16 year old Youth Teams in Junior/Senior events which exclude S1 riders and which they deem appropriate preparation for specific international events. This will only be done in exceptional circumstances and in consultation with the Youth Commission and relevant Provincial Executives. Proposed by North County Down.

- Outcome: Referred to youth commission, who can go to the CI board directly with their recommendation.


Road Racing Calendar:

1. That all Provincial Time Trial and Road Racing Championships should be take place on the same weekend. Proposed by Cuchcullain CC.

- Outcome: carried, on the understanding that the emphasis is on the word ‘should’ rather than ‘must’


2. We propose that races which have established dates on the calendar are protected by Cycling Ireland. For one day races this would mean no clashes within the one province or nearing boundaries and for stage races a suitable time lapse (3-4 weeks) between each race within the one province. Proposed by Ards CC

- Outcome: A modified version of this was passed, reading:


changed to:

We recommend that races which have established dates on the calendar are protected by Cycling Ireland. The second part of the motion was deleted.



General Matters

1. That Cycling Ireland issue frame numbers as well as back numbers to assist judges taking places at races. Proposed by Cuchcullain CC

- Outcome: referred to Road Commission for consideration.


2. That Cycling Ireland investigate issuing each rider with an electronic tag that would be used to place riders in events. Proposed by Cuchcullain CC

- Outcome: Miceal Concannon said that the cost is prohibitive and that for the cost of the transponder system, CI can buy two if not three photo finishes. However he said he will investigate further, even if he feels that photo finish is the way to go.


3. That Cycling Ireland commit to sending the full compliment of ladies to the Worlds Championships next year. The six positions available should be made up of any riders riding in international teams with the rest being filled by domestic riders. CI should also announce selected riders before April to assist in preparation and publish any selection criteria where required. Proposed by Ravens CC

- Outcome: Frank Campbell said that CI could have sent seven riders to the European championships this season but only sent four as he felt that the others were not of the required level. Similarly, he said it would be ridiculous to send six women to the worlds simply because Ireland had that many places. He said that there was no point unless they were of the required level.

The motion was withdrawn on the understanding that if the women met the criteria for selection in the future, they would be considered.

Delegates at the CI AGM were give a document showing the criteria for selection for the men’s track endurance programme. They were told that similar criteria for other disciplines would be finalised and introduced in the future.