Seven Irish riders took to the track at the Tissot Velodrome in Grenchen last Friday and Saturday, the 13th and 14th of December, for the Track Cycling Challenge.
Stefan Caulfield-Dreier and Matti Dobbins were first on track for Ireland on Friday. Caulfield-Dreier took a very respectable 12th in a strong group in the Elimination race, as Dobbins took sixth in his Ireland debut.
Caulfield-Dreier followed up his strong performance in the Elimination with another solid 11th place finish in the Points race that afternoon.
The Men’s Points Race – Under 19 saw three Irish competitors take part. Luca Holmes was the highest Irish finisher with a solid seventh place, as Maximilian Fitzgerald finished just inside the top ten, as Philip O’Connor took 13th.
The Men’s Scratch saw another positive results for Dobbins as he came in 11th, with Caulfield-Dreier taking 21st.
The Under 19 trio again took to the track in the Men’s Elimination Race – Under 19. Luca Holmes took 17th while Philip O’Connor took 14th. Luca Holmes was again highest Irish finisher in 11th.
Caulfield-Dreier and Dobbins took to the track as a pairing in the Men’s Madison. The pair, having never raced a Madison together previously took 12th place.
Both Irish female representatives, Esther Wong and Aoife O’Brien took competed in the Women’s Omnium, with events spread across the day. Having only recently made her debut in green at the UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup in Dublin, Wong made her first appearance for Ireland on track in the morning’s Scratch race, and took 13th place, while O’Brien came in 17th in another strong field.
The Tempo race saw O’Brien take 16th, with Wong finishing 18th. Both Irish riders grabbed themselves top 10s, with O’Brien taking 8th and Wong taking 10th. Wong and O’Brien then took 14th and 16th respectively in the Points race. Wong ended the day in 14th overall, as O’Brien finished 16th.
Luca Holmes got Saturday’s racing underway with a brilliant third place finish in the Men’s Omnium – Under 19 Scratch race, with teammates Max Fitzgerald and Philip O’Connor taking 16th and 18th respectively. The trio then took to the track in the Tempo race, where O’Connor was Ireland’s highest finisher in 6th place, with Fitzgerald also just inside the top ten and Luca Holmes in 17th.
The Elimination race saw Holmes take 14th as top Irish rider, with O’Connor and Fitzgerald taking 17th and 20th respectively. A crash in the Points race to finish off the Omnium saw O’Connor’s day come to a premature end. Holmes was again the top Irish finisher in 11th, with Fitzgerald again taking 17th. O’Connor’s DNF in the final race saw him finish 20th overall, while Fitzgerald took 17th overall, as Holmes took 11th overall.
O’Brien and Wong were back in action on Saturday for the Elimination race. O’Brien took a hard-earned seventh place, while Wong finished 23rd.
The Scratch race saw O’Brien take another top-10 ahead of Wong in 19th. The pair then made their Madison debut, and finished their weekend in Grenchen with a 12th place finish.
Matti Dobbins opened his Saturday’s racing with a top five in the Men’s Omnium Scratch race, finishing ahead of Stefan Caulfield-Dreier in 15th. The pair took on the Tempo race next, with Dobbins again finishing ahead of Caulfield-Dreier in 14th and 19th place respectively. The pair continued in the Elimination race, with Dobbins just edging out Caulfield-Dreier in 15th and 16th respectively. The Points race saw Dobbins take 15th with Caulfield-Dreier taking 18th. Dobbins eventually took 15th overall with Caulfield-Dreier finishing 18th in the standings.