Women's Olympic road race allocations taking shape

With no more women's races before the May 31 deadline to qualify nations for their Olympic Games spots, the UCI's nations rankings published yesterday are a good indication of which countries will send how many riders to London in July.

The top five nations in the women's rankings as of May 29 are The Netherlands, Germany, the United States of America, Italy and Great Britain. The top five countries will send four women for the road race. The men's road race and individual time trial places have already been awarded. Time trial athletes must take part in the road race as part of the assigned allocation.

The latest rankings also factor into the USA team selection. After winning La Flèche Wallonne and sitting seventh in the overall individual rankings, Evelyn Stevens is almost assured to be included in the USA team for London. The selection criteria include a World Cup win as a part of the selection criteria, but for only one athlete.

Sprinter Shelley Olds won a World Cup as well, the Tour of Chongming Island, but the USA Cycling selection procedure states that if more than one rider wins a World Cup, the highest ranked rider in the World Cup first, or UCI rankings next will determine who is given the nod.

Since Olds and Stevens are each at 75 points in the World Cup rankings, Stevens' seventh in the UCI rankings trumps Olds' 30th place.

The countries ranked sixth through 13th will be awarded three places, which should go to Sweden, Australia, Russia, Belgium, Canada, France, Brazil and South Africa.

Some countries with two slots, those ranked 14th-23rd will have one position removed if all of the countries with riders in the top 100 individual rankings don't already have an allocation by virtue of their position in the nations rankings.

Since there are 10 nations that meet the above criteria, all 10 of the countries ranked 14th through 23rd will have one position: Lithuania, New Zealand, Venezuela, Cuba, Luxembourg, Ukraine, China, El Salvador, Belarus and Norway.

Mexico, Thailand, Finland, Chinese Taipei, Estonia, Azerbaijan, Japan, Poland, Korea and Slovenia should be also added to the roster with one position each.

To fill out the 67-woman start list, Asian, African and American continental champions award positions for countries not already given a quota (Hong Kong, Mauritius and Chile, respectively).

Olympic women's road race qualifications per nation, estimated

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#CountryQuota
1Netherlands4
2Germany4
3United States Of America4
4Italy4
5Great Britain4
6Sweden3
7Australia3
8Russian Federation3
9Belgium3
10Canada3
11France3
12Brazil3
13South Africa3
14Lithuania1
15New Zealand1
16Venezuela1
17Cuba1
18Luxembourg1
19Ukraine1
20People's Republic of China1
21El Salvador1
22Belarus1
23Norway1
24Mexico1
25Thailand1
26Korea1
27Finland1
28Chinese Taipei1
29Poland1
30Estonia1
31Japan1
32SwitzerlandRow 31 - Cell 2
33Azerbaijan1
34Slovenia1
35Mauritius1
36Hong Kong, China1
37ColombiaRow 36 - Cell 2
38Czech RepublicRow 37 - Cell 2
39GreeceRow 38 - Cell 2
40MongoliaRow 39 - Cell 2
41IrelandRow 40 - Cell 2
42ZimbabweRow 41 - Cell 2
43PortugalRow 42 - Cell 2
44IsraelRow 43 - Cell 2
45TurkeyRow 44 - Cell 2
46SpainRow 45 - Cell 2
47AustriaRow 46 - Cell 2
48DenmarkRow 47 - Cell 2
49MalaysiaRow 48 - Cell 2
50RomaniaRow 49 - Cell 2
51SerbiaRow 50 - Cell 2
52CroatiaRow 51 - Cell 2
53BelizeRow 52 - Cell 2
54EritreaRow 53 - Cell 2
55VietnamRow 54 - Cell 2
56HungaryRow 55 - Cell 2
57GuyanaRow 56 - Cell 2
58Netherlands AntillesRow 57 - Cell 2
59MoroccoRow 58 - Cell 2
60KazakhstanRow 59 - Cell 2
61ChileRow 60 - Cell 2
62ArgentinaRow 61 - Cell 2
63Antigua and BarbudaRow 62 - Cell 2
64Ivory CoastRow 63 - Cell 2
65NamibiaRow 64 - Cell 2
66LatviaRow 65 - Cell 2
67EgyptRow 66 - Cell 2

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