With just one week to go before the cut-off date for qualification, Ireland looks set to have three starters in the Men’s Elite Road Race at the World Championships. Ireland currently sits in 22nd place in the World Tour rankings, thanks to Dan Martin’s 75 points. His seventh place finish in Critérium du Dauphiné accounted for 30 points of his total.

However, it is just the top 10 nations who qualify via the UCI World Tour classification. Each nation within the top ten may enter 14 riders, with 9 to start. Spain are clear leaders in the rankings with 1582 points, ahead of Great Britain with 973 and Colombia with 814.

Therefore, Ireland’s qualification will come via the UCI Europe Tour. The qualification guidelines state that “The first 14 nations of the classification by nation of the UCI Europe Tour on 15 August 2015 excluding the nations qualifying via the UCI WorldTour classification: the first 6 nations qualifying can enter 9 riders, with 6 to start (rank 1); the nations ranked 7th to 14th can enter 5 riders, with 3 to start (rank 2).”

As it currently stands, eight of the top ten countries in the World Tour rankings are European, with Colombia and Australia being the only other two in the top ten. Therefore, the top twenty two European countries will qualify at least three riders. The top six European countries (not including those qualifying via the World Tour) should have 6 starters, with the next eight countries getting 3 starters.

Ireland occupy the last position entitled to 3 starters, with Sweden and Greece next. There is still a possibility that Ireland could slip behind Sweden, for example, in the next week, which would mean they would qualify just one rider.

Sam Bennett is the highest ranked rider in the Europe Tour rankings, with 161 points, and sitting in 39th position. Next highest is Damien Shaw in 217th position with 52 points.

The race takes place on September 27th, and consists of 16 laps of a 16.2 kilometre circuit for a total of 259.2 kilometres. Each lap will have 103 metres of elevation gain for a total of 1648 metres of climbing.

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