Lucy Benezet Minns looks like a world class talent on track and road and she is back in the national team for the upcoming Europeans (Photo: Toby Watson)
Just a day after the first Team Ireland junior selection of the year was named by Cycling Ireland comes the first senior national team of 2026. This time it’s mixed line-up, of male and female riders, chosen for the senior European Track Championships in Turky in just over three weeks.
Two of the big guns – Lara Gillespie and Mia Griffin – are missing as they have commitments with their trade teams. And that means Gillespie will not be defending the European crown she won 12 months ago in the elimination race.
However, their absence is a chance for others who want to break into the first choice team pursuit line-up ahead of Olympic Games qualification. These Europeans will also see one of our young male riders make his senior international debut.
Max Fitzgerald (Team Skyline) is the senior debutant in the team and will be racing at these Europeans after winning a scratch race silver medal in the junior Europeans last season. He is joined in the team by Matti Dobbins, who has already ridden for Ireland at senior level on the track.
However, the two men aside for a moment, it is again our female riders who are likely to be the mainstay of Team Ireland’s efforts to qualify for the 2028 Olympics, with the team pursuit the main route.
And despite the absence of Griffin and Gillespie, there are some really strong women named in this team. They are:
Lucy Benezet Minns (Lotto Ladies)
Erin Creighton (McConvey Cycles)
Emma Jeffers (Liv AlUla Jayco Conti)
Fiona Mangan (Mayenne Monbana My Pie)
Aoife O’Brien (DAS-Hutchinson)
Caoimhe O’Brien (EF Education-Oatly)
Esther Wong (Team Farto-Kiroot)
Creighton is perhaps the most experienced of the riders on the track as she was a reserve in the Olympic team pursuit line-up that went to Paris in 2024. However, former Irish road race and TT champion Mangan rode the Tour de France last year.
Benezet Minns won the junior European title in the points race two years ago and was 4th in the junior TT at the Worlds two years ago. For her part, Jeffers won the U23 road race title at the National Road Championships last year, when she also took two strong wins in sprints in UCI-ranked racing in Italy.
The O’Brien sisters will also fancy getting into the team pursuit formation that will, hopefully, ultimately go to the Olympic Games in Los Angeles, as will national cyclocross champion Wong.