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O’Loughlin is on track for Olympics
By Steve Landells
Mayo cyclist believes he can win a medal.
DAVID O’Loughlin hopes a top quality performance on Wednesday (March
26) on the opening day of the World Track Cycling Championships in Manchester
can help keep his dream alive of becoming the first Irish cyclist to land
an Olympic track medal.
Ireland has a rich and proud road cycling heritage thanks to the exploits
of former Tour de France winner Stephen Roche and former Tour of Spain
winner Sean Kelly among the world’s elite in the 1980s and early
1990s.
But despite Ireland’s accomplishments on the road, Irish track success
has been virtually non-existent until now.
The seeds for O’Loughlin’s rising status can be found two
years ago with the implementation of a specific track programme by Cycling
Ireland and, so far, the results have been encouraging with the Mayo rider
leading a wave of new, emerging talent.
O’Loughlin, from the village of Cong, is currently ranked No. 10
in the world for the 4km individual pursuit and knows he requires a prominent
showing in Manchester to catapult himself into the world’s top seven
and to book his ticket for Beijing.
It is an ambitious goal but not an impossible task. He is improving race
by race and last month in Copenhagen he finished fourth in the individual
pursuit — a best-ever World Cup finish by an Irish rider in the
event.
“It was a huge boost to reach the bronze medal ride-off and come
that close to a medal,” said the softly-spoken O’Loughlin
of his performance in Denmark. “Pretty much all the world’s
top riders were there bar Bradley Wiggins.”
The Cycling Ireland track programme is headed by national coach Tommy
Evans and supported by Simon Jones, the former head coach of British Cycling
who helped invigorate track racing on the other side of the Irish Sea.
Unlike Britain however Ireland is not blessed with top-class facilities
with the country’s one and only track the inadequate Sundrive Road
in Dublin.
This means the squad have to train abroad at indoor tracks in Manchester,
Newport and as far a field as Ghent in Belgium.
O’Loughlin, a three-time national road race champion, just missed
a spot on the Irish road race team for the 2004 Athens Olympics where
he was a reserve.
But such was his desire to reach major Championship events and his frustration
at the ongoing doping issues undermining road racing he decided to turn
his attention to the track.
“I wanted to make the Olympic Games and the World Championships
and the track was a new avenue for me,” explained O’Loughlin.
“With all the doping scandals it was a new focus for me. You tell
people you are a pro-cyclist and there is not the same level of respect
and admiration from the general public.
“Economically there is less money involved in track cycling but
it is the pure element to the sport and people, I believe, are competing
on a much more level playing field.”
O’Loughlin did not start riding on the track until the relatively
advanced age of 27 and caused a stir by beating Wiggins and his fellow
Olympic finalist Bradley McGhee in a special match in his first track
appearance in Manchester last year. But he underperformed at last year’s
World Championships in Majorca finishing 18th in the men’s individual
pursuit.
This year however he has made enormous strides and is knocking on the
door of the best riders in the world.
“I’m starting to get more consistent and better results,”
said O’Loughlin. “Things didn’t go so good for me in
Majorca but I know this year I’m about 100-times more prepared.
We only did one World Cup event last year as a team but this year we have
much more experience.”
O’Loughlin, who lived in Harrow, London aged 5 to 15 and said his
family were regular readers of The Irish Post, has been preparing for
the World Championships by training in Cape Town, South Africa. But although
he is an improving performer he knows the enormity of the task he faces
in Manchester.
“We’ve been aiming as a team for Manchester but we expect
Manchester to be significantly faster, maybe worth about four of five
seconds,” said O’Loughlin, the Irish individual pursuit record
holder with 4:25.
“But it is an Olympic year and the standard goes up in Olympic year.”
However despite his newfound passion for track racing the Mayo rider did
not rule out trying to win a place in the Ireland team in the Olympic
road race should he fail secure track qualification for Beijing.
O’Loughlin is an accomplished road performer with the Pezula Racing
team and as Ireland have two guaranteed places for the Olympic road race
this could yet provide an alternative route to China.
However O’Loughlin, who celebrates his 30th birthday next month,
admits he is fully focused on his track ambitions and admitted he wished
he had taken up track cycling earlier in his career.
“There is a lot more opportunity now than when I was growing up,”
he explained. “If I’d have taken it up when I was younger
I’m sure I would have been a much better cyclist.” |
