Two years after promising a round of the UCI World Cup for Dublin, plans to bring top tier cyclocross racing to the Irish capital are back on track. The promised round of the World Cup will take place on December 11th next.
That date is much later in the season than the World Cup round originally due to take place in Ireland in 2021 - which was scheduled for October 18th that year until the pandemic intervened. And the later date for this year's race increases the chances of the biggest stars of the sport - Wout van Aert, Mathieu van der Poel and Tom Pidcock - being on the start line in Dublin.
In recent years the big names of cyclocross are those who mix the discipline with riding all season on the road. They have tended to take a break after their road season, meaning they have often missed the first tranche of racing during the winter months.
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However, the December date for the Irish UCI World Cup race leaves plenty of time for the dual road and cyclocross riders to take a break after their road season and return to off-road competition in time for Dublin. Irish cycling fans will certainly be hoping they turn up and riders like Van Aert, Pidcock and Van der Poel would be a huge draw.
The cyclocross racing on December 11th will be held on the Abbottstown Sports Campus in west Dublin. It will be the ninth round of the 14-round UCI World Cup 2022-23 and comes exactly one week after round 8 in Antwerp, Belgium, and six days before round 10 in Val di Sole, Italy.
The Dublin round is being organised by the UCI and the Flanders Classics pro race promotions group. Tomas Van Den Spiegel, the chief executive of Flanders Classics, said he and his colleagues were "very proud" to add Dublin to the group's racing venues.
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“We’ll be racing in a true Irish environment," Van Den Spiegel said. "That will give the Dublin round its own identity, just like we’ve seen for the Val di Sole and Flamanville races in the 2021-2022 season.
"December will be very exciting, because one week before heading to Dublin we’ll be racing in Antwerp, after postponing the race last year. And one week later the second edition of the Val di Sole round is on the agenda. We hope to be able to establish a long-term relationship here and in the meantime we will continue the work to add London to the schedule for the 2023-24 season.”
Una May of Sports Ireland said the organisation was "thrilled to host this prestigious event on the Sport Ireland Campus".
"The staging of a major international cycling event is another milestone for the Sport Ireland Campus, which has played host to major events across a wide range of sports to great success," said May. "Cyclocross is a discipline that is experiencing rapid growth globally. Sport Ireland extends it thanks to the UCI and Flanders Classics for choosing the Sport Ireland Campus to host this event.
"The hosting of the Cyclocross World Cup event in Ireland not only will bring significant sporting benefits but also has significant potential from a tourism perspective with large crowds travelling to cyclocross events right across Europe. Sport Ireland will be working closely with Government and tourism partners to ensure that this event is used to showcase the very best of what Ireland has to offer. We look forward to welcoming the cyclocross family in December."
Matt McKerrow of Cycling Ireland, who has been under extreme pressure since the start of the year over repeated debacles within the national governing body he leads, said Ireland was a "natural environment" for cyclocross.
"With off-road versions of the sport more popular than ever, it will be a great spectacle for cycling enthusiasts and newcomers to the sport to experience," McKerrow said. "There’ll even be some participation races around the main events for everyone to give it a try. We’d like to thank Flanders Classics and the Sport Ireland Campus for making a Dublin round of the series a possibility."
