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news
Stars get chance to appeal being dropped from British Cycling's Team GB Olympic selection?
British Cycling has begun an “additional appeals process” at the eleventh hour to address concerns that Team GB was not selected properly.
Cyclists including Dani King, Jess Varnish and Steve Cummings were all absent from Friday’s team announcements - and now the British Olympic Association says it has ‘raised concerns’ about the appeals process.
The additional process now instigated is so hastily erected that the Daily Telegraph was the first to break the news to King and Varnish’s agents last night.
London 2012 gold medallist King has already described her omission as "unfair", while British time trial champion Hayley Simmonds called the governing body "disrespectful" in an angry Facebook post.
Lawyers at the BOA are said to be worried about possible legal challenges from riders who missed the 26-strong team - but it’s not certain which members will take advantage of the new independent appeals panel.
King has indicated that she will wait until after today’s national road race championships to make her decision, while Varnish is thought unlikely to appeal, having been dropped in March amid a sexism and bullying scandal that led to technical director Shane Sutton stepping down.
“The mechanics of it will be announced over the next few days,” British Cycling interim performance director Andy Harrison said when asked how it would work. “There have been ongoing conversations over the last 24 hours with the BOA. They raised their concerns over the appealing process. In collaboration, we've identified a pragmatic response to that.
"The intention is that it will follow exactly the appeal process as listed in the selection criteria. But it's very much isolated and removed from the selection panel. What we've got is a completely independent panel to the selection. I'm happy, as is the BOA and UK Sport, that it's a mirror of the appeals process.”
Team GB
Men's Track
Jason Kenny, Phillip Hindes, Callum Skinner, Sir Bradley Wiggins, Mark Cavendish, Owain Doull, Steven Burke, Ed Clancy, Ryan Owens.
Women's Track
Rebecca James, Katy Marchant, Laura Trott, Katie Archibald, Joanna Rowsell Elinor Barker, Ciara Horne.
Men's Road
Geraint Thomas, Chris Froome, Adam Yates, Peter Kennaugh, Ian Stannard.
Women's Road
Lizzie Armitstead, Emma Pooley, Nikki Harris. Men's BMX Liam Phillips, Kyle Evans.
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13 comments
Cummings went full on boss mode again. Can't not go to Rio now..
GB have got egg on their faces now. If Cummings doesn't get picked for Rio now (likely) it's nothing short of a scandal.
Why kennaugh when he wasn't even fit for yesterday's national title defence?
There are always going to be people disappointed at missing out when there is such a system producing more talent than the roster spots allow. The womens triathlon team too has had to leave a very talented winning athlete at home.
I wonder if this would have been handled differently if it wasn't for the fallout over Jess Varnish particularly but a nod back to the Wendy Houvenagel (sp? & not gonna google it theres another H in there I'm sure) 2012 issues too, ironic that Dani King was one of the beneficiaries of her omission.
Dani has queried Emma Pooley's selection particularly I believe given that she's only just come back to cycling at this level having retired to other athletic pursuits.
Quite right, these are arguments about domestiques for the road race and track cyclists with little medal potential. British Triathlon are leaving a potential medalist at home. There are going to dissapointed people in all sports. There does seem to be an overwhelming desire by the media to make out that their is turmoil, unhappiness and mismanagement at British Cycling.
Breakaway wins are common in the Olympics, and Cummings does pretty well in the break.
well when a rider who was told they were on the long list,then short list & was apparently even receiving communications about about flight dates/tickets for family fairly recently, but only finds out they missed out on selection through a tweet when BC published the team...even the England football team arent that hamfisted with selection announcements...it doesnt strike me as an organisation thats managing things well at all.
I think the argument is more nuanced than just so and so was left out and is complaining about it, the riders were told the qualifying period,told rankings were going to be important, but the final selection seems to bear no relation to have been following that approach. Or even seems to recognise for instance the Road race is being held before the TT, so in Emmas case assuming she gets the form and fitness in time, is likely to expend most of the energy in the road race first & then only has 2 days to recover for the TT medal shot.
who knows maybe theyve played a selection blinder and theyll come back with another gold medal glut, and all this will be forgotten, but if they dont then there are real questions about the selection policies, both road and track.
Is anyone saying that they are not taking their full compliment? So if anyone appeals they are saying that someone who is in the team is the wrong person and they are better. Can anyone run down a head to head of who they people are and why they are better? I don't know much about the track but on the road...
Steve Cummings
vs
Geraint Thomas, Chris Froome, Adam Yates, Peter Kennaugh, Ian Stannard.
who would you drop and why?
Ian Stannard because it is widely thought that the course doesn't suit him, but then again probably the ideal rider to be pulling on the front early in the race to keep a break in check.
I think the most debatable decision is the selection of Emma Pooley over Dani King. King has been excellent this season and Pooley has been poor since returning to cycling. The problem comes from the most important race in womens cycling having such small teams and one ride from that team has to do the time trial. Pooley probably selected as much for her past time trial results as her climbing ability.
Pooley and Stannard are slight gambles, but can be justified. I don't envy the British selectors, but it could be worse try picking a Dutch womens team with such a small allocation.
I think Pooley is the only real climber we've produced (amoungst many oustanding female talents in the past decade), so to take her isn't so much of an odd decision is it? She'll purely be working for Armitstead in the road race and has the experience to do well in that role. I'm not surprised anyway.
Her "other athletic pursuits" were also fairly relevant too. I bet she went up Alpe d'huez quicker than a lot of the current peleton in the long course triathlon in August.
I'd take Cummings over either Kennaugh or Stannard, put him up the road early in the day and he has a decent chance of medalling if the break manages to stay away. He's had a really impressive year of winning by doing that. Froome, Yates and G are strong enough to sit in the group of favourites and mark out any attacks without needing any more help tbh.
Tough one but Peter Kennaugh. Fantastic early season, normally a shoo in for something like this but at this stage (6 weeks to go) he's not 100% fit. Admittedly, unfortunate and not his fault. Cummings on the other hand is in the form of his life. In the last 12 months he's won a TdF stage and 3 stages in other races (and not exactly tuppenney ha'penny races either; Dauphine, Tirreno, Basque Country). To me he has been the outstanding British roadman of 2016.
Those that have been left out have my sympathies. Not that I could think of anything I'd personally want less than to train most of my life to win and then be rewarded by having to stand silently while a song about how bloody great the queen is gets played. Yet it is the pinnacle of sporting achievement, in spite of all the absurd flag waving. And it sucks when the prospects of achieving one's life goals are limited by the inexplicable decision of a bunch of mostly older people, who've had their chance to shine, have taken the advantages they want now want to deny others, and can do so only through the unfortunate accident of sharing the location of one's birth with them.