By Shane Stokes
It’s a long way from the days of the 34 categorised climbs which featured in the 2018 event, but organisers Cairde Rás Tailteann have dialled up the climbing somewhat for this year’s Rás Tailteann.
Last year the race featured just eight categorised ascents, with no first categorised climbs featured at all. This year there’s been a shift; the number of hills goes from eight to 14 and, in a move which could define the GC very early on, there is a first category climb close to the finish on the opening day.
“The feedback was that that probably wasn’t enough climbing in it last year,” race director Ger Campbell explained to Stickybottle after the route details were circulated. “There is certainly more climbing in it this year. I think it is a much tougher route than last year.”
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The move signifies a rethinking of a strategy taken when the 2022 route was drawn up. That course was actually designed in 2020 but not used until two years later due to Covid 19. At the time the-then race director Eugene Moriarty said that the flatter profile was a deliberate decision to ‘open up the race for aggressive racing.’
The thinking was that having stages of multiple first and second category climbs tended to suffocate the willingness to attack across the whole event. Last year’s edition was indeed a very aggressive contest, with one of Irish cycling’s perennial attackers Daire Feeley ultimately winning outright.
Increasing the number of climbs by nearly 100 percent this year sounds like a lot but, comparing these 14 ascents to the 34 five years ago, there is still a huge amount on offer to any riders who may be wary of a stack of climbing.
Wolftrap Warning
Number of peaks aside, this year’s edition will differ in another way to that of last June. The 2022 route lacked any first category climbs; this time around, the very first stage of the race will feature one such ascent, something which could reduce the list of overall contenders very early on.
“A category one climb on the first day is unusual,” Campbell said. “It’s not a day when the race is going to be won, but it could certainly be lost. It crests Wolftrap Mountain with about 20 km to go, and it’s about six kilometres long, so it is substantial.
“After the top it is really fast finish into Birr, and there is not a lot of time for getting back on if you lose substantial time on that climb.”
That stage from Navan to Birr will be followed by a 154 kilometre race to Ennis, and then a 149.3 kilometre race to Castlebar. Campbell assess both of those.
“There are a lot of hard roads the next day as well,” he said, referring to stage two. “Even some of the roads where there’s no categorised climbs, the first 50 or 60k through North Tipperary is very, very hard. Very, very hard. And day three is definitely one for the sprinters. It’s the fast, flat stage this year.”
A spanner in the works
It’s always hard to forecast what will happen at the Rás, which has always been one of the most unpredictable of races. Still, the finale of stage one stands out as something that could well prove decisive and, so too, the fourth day of competition.
“I think the stage that could really throw a spanner in the works is stage four,” he says, “in that it’s long,176k long. The first 70k or so are on fast, flat main roads, going on the N5 from Charlestown as far as Longford. And then they take a turn and they head up towards County Cavan. They go up through Granard and into Ballinagh and into Cavan town. The road from Cavan town to Clones is particularly hard, and they are hitting that at a stage when they have about 120 or 125km in their legs.
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“I’ve travelled that now twice or three times in the past few weeks and it’s really, really hard. Now, it does flatten out the last 20k…from Clones into Monaghan is flat, but the 30k before that is going to cause untold harm, in my opinion. They are undulating roads, very unforgiving roads.”
That’s not all the riders will have to contend with. “The final twist to that stage is it is a 300 metre uphill finish into Monaghan. It’s one of those finishes where you hang a 90 degree turn at 300 meters to go and then have this ramp up to the finish. And it’s steep enough….after 176k it is definitely a steep finish.”
Tweaked finale could help suffering riders
Last year the race finished for the first time in Blackrock, Co. Louth. That replaced what was previously a very successful finish in Skerries, Co Dublin, but the 2022 finale did work very well. The Rás heads back there again this time around, but the course has been tweaked and the circuit has been lengthened.
“The final stage is on much harder roads than it was last year,” he said. “Last year we came from Kinnegad across to Blackrock and it was mostly flat roads. This year the roads are through Cavan and Monaghan, and the first 40k of the stage promises to cause some harm.
“Last year the bunch more or less came together to Blackrock. I’d be surprised if the bunch is as big coming into Blackrock this year.”
Mindful of the possibility that the field could be scattered over quite a distance, Campbell explains that the finishing circuit has been lengthened slightly. He talks through the rationale for this.
“Last year when the riders were more than, I think, seven minutes down when they hit the circuit, they were pulled in and a (calculated) time was added to their finishing time.
“The same will apply this year, but it could probably be nine minutes or something this year, given the length of the circuit. We have tweaked the circuit a little bit, it’s 1.2 or 1.3 kilometres longer. Again they’ll have four laps, but it’s four laps of 11.1km instead of four laps of 9.9k.
“That probably buys us a couple of minutes in that we’ll get more riders onto the circuit, which is always nice. And it also does away with some of the speed ramps, which we had some negative feedback from last year. It’s exciting. It’s exciting.”
Race length complications
Stage particulars aside, there is a bigger picture to consider too. When the Rás Tailteann returned a decision was made to reduce it from seven days to five, and also to take it off the UCI calendar, at least for now. Both measures were taken to try to reduce costs.
Interestingly, the new format has a knock on effect, in terms of the amount of climbing potentially on offer to the riders.
“With five days you are kind of restricted where you can go,” Campbell explains. “If you are starting on the East Coast, with the exception of Wicklow, you’re not going to get to mountains in Kerry and mountains in Donegal, really, without just drawing a straight line up to Donegal and another parallel line back down from it.”
That wouldn’t achieve the kind of geographical spread that Campbell and the others on the Cáirde Rás Tailteann committee are trying to achieve. “It’s always at the back of the mind for the route to look well on a map as well, if you know what I mean.
“And we set out to have at least one stage in each province, and we’ve achieved that. There is at least one stage in each province.”
Big mountains may well return to the Rás in future years. For now, though, spending two or three days in such terrain will remain unlikely, at least until the budget increases and allows for a longer race.
