Hayley hopes to track down host of medals

Hayley hopes to track down host of medals

31 July 2013

HAYLEY Priestley from Maghera, who last year was U-16 All-Ireland ladies’ cycling champion, has continued her phenomenal rise in the cycling world.

At the start of the year she moved up into the junior ladies’ category and has since participated in eight open road races in Northern Ireland taking first place in five of the races, second place in two and fourth in one.

A truly wonderful performance as this is her first year competing at adult level.

In recognition of her ability, Cycling Ireland has selected her to represent Ireland in the World Track Championships in Glasgow in August.

Leading up to these championships, Cycling Ireland organised a summer training programme.

In preparation for the main aspect of this training programme, Hayley and a number of other selected male and female cyclists, attended a track training camp at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome in Glasgow for a week in late June where she met some of her cycling heroes such as Bradley Wiggins and Mark Cavendish.

The main summer programme consists of specific track training and road events over a four and a half week period in Belgium for the male and female team preparing for the World Track Championships.

Hayley left for the Belgium training camp on July 12 and on August 5 she travels directly to Glasgow for the World Track Championship. During this time those attending the camp got the opportunity of attending one of the stages of the Tour de France.

Speaking about the programme, Cycling Ireland CEO Geoff Liffey said: “It is pleasing to see a strong competitive squad take on a challenging summer programme which should provide a great experience for all those involved.”

The overall aims of the programme are to educate and develop the riders across cycling disciplines to reach their full future potential. The riders are attending these intensive training camps across Europe to ensure that they perform to their best at the targeted events.

This will provide them with a strong foundation to move along the development pathway into the U-23 ranks. This is a great opportunity for Hayley to achieve her full potential and Lanterne Rouge Cycling Club are no doubt that Hayley will soon be competing at the top ladies’ cycling events in the world.

Hayley also has the possibility of competing in the road world championships this year as the short list for this event will be announced on August 20, two days after the Irish Junior Nationals.

It is Glasgow’s Sir Chris Hoy’s Velodrome that will host the 2013 UCI Juniors Track World Championships.

Competing over five days from August 7-11 the future stars of track cycling will take to the circuit that will host track cycling during the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games.

Riders will battle for world titles across a range of race disciplines at speeds in excess of 85 kilometres per hour.

Watch as the next generation of track cycling greats make their bid for glory and the coveted rainbow jersey and our own Hayley Priestley will be one of those special young cyclists who will be competing for this award.

Hayley would like to thank all her friends at La Lanterne Rouge Cycling Club, in particular, Seamus Downey for his continuous help and support as coach and family friend.

She would also like to thank Team Vision Racing which has shown great support over the last year and through all those harsh winter training runs. A big thanks also to Team Priestley, especially Hayley’s mum, Tracey, and her coach and father, Robin.

Hayley also sends a special note of congratulations to Mark Downey, from Dromore, who will join her at the world track championships and training camps leading up to the main event.