Following the fine tenth place achieved by the Irish trio of Jennifer O’Reilly, Ciara Horne and Caroline Ryan in the team pursuit at the track World Cup in Cali, Colombia, the strong performances of the Irish team continued in the final two days of the event.

Caroline Ryan exceeded all pre-race expectations when she broke the Irish record in the women’s individual pursuit and qualified fourth. She clocked a time of 3 minutes 40.6 seconds in the 3000 metre test, finishing just 0.546 seconds off the time of third-placed rider Pascale Schnider (Switzerland). They fought it out for the bronze medal and while she went over a second faster in that final, Schnider also improved and took the medal. However the performance is very noteworthy and shows how Irish track cycling is progressing.

Martyn Irvine also performed strongly in the men’s omnium, bouncing back well after what were off-pace showings in the elimination and points races. Those dropped him down the standings, but he recovered to finish tenth overall with excellent showings in the individual pursuit, where he was fourth, plus his third place in the kilo.

Like the team pursuit riders, he earned points towards Olympic qualification and received a big boost in confidence.

[more later]