Lydia Boylan has come agonisingly close to a medal on day two of the first round of the World Cup in Cali, Colombia, today.
National Road Race Champion Boylan, a member of the Women’s Team Pursuit squad, was one of four riders who gained a lap on the main field early in the 10km Women’s Scratch Race.
The leaders maintained their position in the bunch from then on and fought it out for medals at the conclusion of the 40-lap race.
Boylan was pipped for bronze but can take great solace from her fighting performance in gaining a lap on a world-class field.
Earlier in the programme, Martyn Irvine rode in the sixth of ten heats in the Men’s individual Pursuit.
The Irish record-holder and former world championship silver medalist started quickly and, after slowing in the second kilometre, rallied to finish in 4m31.484s, good enough for tenth place.
Today is the final day of racing in Cali with Eoin Mullen riding the qualifying heats of the Men’s Sprint starting at 2pm, Irish time.
Shannon McCurley’s heat of the Women’s Keirin gets under way at approximately 17.15, Irish time while racing concludes in Cali with the Men’s Madison at a quarter to midnight, Irish time when Mark Downey and Fintan Ryan will do battle for Ireland.
Team Technical Director Brian Nugent:- “That was a great performance from Lydia. She made a good move and looked really strong in the break. She pushed hard for the lap and was unlucky not to come away with a medal.
“Martyn missed the team pursuit yesterday with illness and we didn’t know what to expect today but he got out all had. Tomorrow we have sprint and Keirin and we’re looking forward to that.”
Today’s final day of action at the Cali World Cup will be covered live on the UCI YouTube Channel. See UCI.ch for details.
For full results from the Cali World Cup see the the Official Website: http://www.copamundopistacali.com/
For live timing see http://www.tissottiming.com/Competition?id=00030C0005FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF&sport=CT&year=2015
See the Cycling Ireland twitter feed for live updates: @IreCyclingFed
Wish we could watch it here in the states!