End of an era or sign of progress? The An Post Rás 2014 will be the first time in the history of the race that A3 riders will not be permitted to start.
After a dispute this year during which cut off times on stages of the An Post Rás were more rigidly implemented than ever before and large numbers of riders eliminated, the race organisers have taken definitive action to prevent a repeat next year.
It has now emerged that only those Irish riders holding an A2 licence or higher will be eligible to start the race, with A3s no longer eligible.
The move is aimed at ensuring the standard across the field is maintained, but will exclude those home riders who start each year with the ambition of simply finishing, irrespective of how far back they may fall each day.
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The move will also see an intense battle for placings in the early season races at home as those A3 riders with designs on starting the 2014 Rás next May race to get enough points to secure an A2 licence and the Rás eligibility that now comes with it.
Race director Tony Campbell said because the standard of racing in the Rás was constantly on the rise it was important that was reflected in domestic racing.
“With the huge number of races in the early part of the season it should well be in the reach of riders aspiring to take part in an eight-day international race to achieve sufficient points to move up to category 2,” he said.
The new rule was decided upon by the An Post Rás working committee, with news of the development issued via press release this evening, Thursday.
The race is now a UCI 2.2 ranked event of note that attracts a quality international field. In recent years only the very best of Irish riders have been able to compete for stage wins and classification jerseys or even go on the attack.
However, that did not deter a committed number of riders in the A3 ranks from preparing for the race each year in the knowledge that they would lose very significant time on most stages and would need to be at their best to even survive.
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Some of those riders had only made it through the event when they were granted exemptions by the commisaires to remain in the field after being outside the time limit - 20 per cent of the stage winner’s time - on many stages.
The UCI this year tightened up its rules around granting such exemptions in stage races with a UCI grading.
The 2013 Rás saw that policy rigidly followed, with a much larger number of riders eliminated for missing time cuts than ever before.
On stage 3 from Listowel to Glengarrif the riders faced 150km with some very early climbs. Those ascents and fast racing saw the bunch split very early.
And by the finish some 23 riders were outside the time limit, having completed the stage outside the cushion of 20 per cent of the time recorded by stage winner Kirill Pozdnyakov (Synergy Baku).
There was an expectation that most of the riders would be granted an exemption to start the following day, as would have been the case in other years.
But their appeals to the commissaries fell on deaf ears, as the officials were bound to more rigidly enforce the cut off time rule because of the UCI clampdown in this area across the sport globally since the start of this year.
News that A3s will not be permitted in next year’s race is likely to provoke a mixed response. Some will see their exclusion as the race losing some of its character while others will likely welcome the move as a modernisation of what is now a testing international event.
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