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However, in that case, the rider who secured the extra year had already been previously funded on merit; securing the results required. This time around, de Vries is funded for the first time based on an exemption to the criteria.<\/p>\n
While de Vries is not the first to avail of an exemption, his inclusion in the list, having just declared for Ireland, and so long after last racing at his peak, is a surprise.<\/p>\n
Cycling Ireland told The Sunday Independent he had been included after he declared for Ireland last year \u2013 via his mother, an Irish citizen \u2013 and after he had met \u201cperformance targets\u201d rather than race results targets.<\/p>\n
Three Irish riders have been awarded the maximum \u20ac40,000 under \u2018podium funding\u2019 \u2013 meaning they are contenders for medals at the Los Angeles Games in 2028.<\/p>\n
They are Lara Gillespie \u2013 the former European champion, and reigning world champion, in the elimination race \u2013 along with the Paralympic and world champion tandem duo of Katie-George Dunlevy and Linda Kelly.<\/p>\n
There are seven riders, all women, awarded \u20ac18,000 \u2018international\u2019 funding; the group that now makes up the Irish track team. They are: Aoife O\u2019Brien, Caoimhe O\u2019Brien, Fiona Mangan, Erin Creighton, Emma Jeffers, Esther Wong and national road race champion Mia Griffin.<\/p>\n
Aside from Dunlevy and Kelly being awarded \u20ac40,000 each, and Barnes and de Vries being allocated \u20ac18,000 each, four other paracyclists have also secured funding for 2026. They are: Richael Timothy, Mitchell McLaughlin, Damien Vereker and Josephine Healion.<\/p>\n
Sport Ireland | 2026 Funding<\/p>\n
Cycling Ireland<\/p>\n
Lara Gillespie Podium \u20ac40,000
\nCaoimhe O’Brien International \u20ac18,000
\nAoife O’Brien International \u20ac18,000
\nFiona Mangan International \u20ac18,000
\nErin Creighton International \u20ac18,000
\nEmma Jeffers International \u20ac18,000
\nEsther Wong International \u20ac18,000
\nMia Griffin International \u20ac18,000<\/p>\n
Cycling Ireland Para<\/p>\n
Katie-George Dunlevy Podium \u20ac40,000
\nLinda Kelly Podium \u20ac40,000
\nRichael Timothy International \u20ac18,000
\nMitchell McLaughlin International \u20ac18,000
\nDamien Vereker International \u20ac18,000
\nJosephine Healion International \u20ac18,000
\nHarvey Barnes International \u20ac18,000
\nStephen de Vries International \u20ac18,000<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sport Ireland has funded 16 Irish riders for 2026 – the Irish track team and paracycling team, including…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":556872,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-556871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=556871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556871\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/556872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/16-irish-cyclists-funded-by-sport-ireland-ex-dutch-international-gets-euro-18-000.jpg\")
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<\/p>\n![\"Stage](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/stage-race-action-returns-to-irish-road-scene-for-may-bank-holiday-weekend.jpg\")
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