David McCann won the FBD Ras na hEireann last month

McCann finished second in the Irish Championship on Sunday behind David O'Loughlin but both men have been overlooked for Athens.

Instead, Cycling Ireland have nominated Mark Scanlon and Ciaran Power.

Power was only sixth in Sunday's Sligo event while Europe-based Scanlon missed the race because he is preparing for the Tour de France.

McCann will miss out despite claiming what he described as the "biggest win" of his career in last month's FBD Ras na hEireann.

He also claimed a stage win in the recent Tour of Korea but under Cycling Ireland's complicated selection criteria, he was ranked behind Scanlon and Power.

The Belfast rider spoke of his "confusion" as to how Cycling Ireland had arrived at their decision.

"They published a very comprehensive (selection) criteria and by my understanding of it, I cannot work out why they have picked the team that they have," McCann told the BBC.

I find it quite hard to understand David McCann

"Thirty per cent of the criteria was for exceptional performances.

"In the Ras, there was the strongest field assembled in Ireland this year and on the two hardest days, I broke away from the entire field on my own to claim solo victories.

"To not be credited with those sort of wins, compared to what the other guys have done, I find it quite hard to understand."

McCann's omission is a disappointment for the rider who served a six-month ban after failing a drugs test in 2002.

He was found to have had excessive levels of Norandrosterone in a urine sample taken during the Tour of Austria that year although McCann always protested his innocence.