Big changes to National Road Series unveiled for 2017 season
Sean Lacey drives the pace during the North Down GP last August, the 12th and final race of the National Road Series. After finishing runner-up to Bryan McCrystal in 2015, the Aquablue man went one better and took the overall win (Photo: David McVeigh – The Belgian Project)
Significant changes to the National Road Series have been announced for the season ahead, with fewer events and all of them counting towards a rider’s final points tally.
In another new development, a women’s series will also be held and run in tandem with all but one of the men’s races.
Changes to the number of races in the series, from 12 last year to seven this time around, will perhaps give more focus to the series.
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Each race will now count for more and in time as the series grows each event should therefore take on more significance.
Cycling Ireland last year stipulated that a rider’s placings in their five best events would count towards their final points tally. Three of those races had to be in different provinces.
The rules meant a rider could skip going to any races in the province furthest from them without impacting their ability to score the highest possible points tally.
While that rule was introduced to ensure riders were not overly burdened with travelling long distances to events, it meant the strongest riders did not have to face each other in each event.
And so the significance of each race was undermined. This time all seven events count as scoring opportunities, with the points from all added to create the riders’ final general classification tally.
And the last race of the series, the Larragh Classic in Co Wicklow in September, will count for double points.
That factor should help ensure interest in the series in maintained right to the end of the season, a key goal of Cycling Ireland.
Points for each event, apart from Laragh Classic
1st 40 points, 2nd 35 points, 3rd 30 points, 4th 25 points, 5th 20 points, 6th 19 points, 7th 18 points, 8th 17 points, 9th 16 points, 10th 15 points, 11th 13 points. 12th 11 points, and reducing by one point for every placing until 20th is awarded 3 points.
This year there is also one event every month of the season; another mechanism aimed at spreading the intensity of the series through the entire campaign.
The first race takes place this Sunday, with the men and woman set to tackle the bruising Des Hanlon Memorial in Co Carlow.
The Joe Daly Cycle's Women’s National League also now becomes part of the series.
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The women’s races will take place on the same day and same venue as the men’s events, with the exception of the Shay Elliott in Co Wicklow.
The women will not have a race that day. Instead, one of their rounds will be the Deenside Cup, Castlecomer, Co Kilkenny, in May.
By creating that as a round of the women’s series, both the men’s and women’s series will each have seven rounds.
The series is now run by Cycling Ireland’s road commission. It is aimed at creating regular significant races where the best riders face each other. In that way, it is hoped the standard of domestic road racing will increase.
Mark Dowling gives the victory salute at the end of a masterful performance in Co Carlow to claim the Des Hanlon Memorial two years ago. That race gets Irish cycling's National Road Series underway this weekend (Photo: Sean Rowe)
The series was won by Bryan McCrystal and Sean Lacey in its first two years. Their standing among Ireland’s very best was a real boost to establishing the credentials of the revived concept.
The men’s series is aimed mainly at A1 and A2 riders. For the women’s series, any rider with a racing licence can take part.
Tim Barry of the road commission said the series should foster hard racing on a consistent basis through the season.
“This is the third year of the National Road Series, and each year it’s getting better,” said Barry, who is now working with the Aqua Blue Sport ProContinental team.
“This year we have seven races across the calendar spanning the racing season so the competition should be good in each one.
“Having one key race each month from March to September will bring the best riders together on a regular basis and raise the standard of racing across the country.”
And Barry believes the women's classic league running in tandem with the men’s series is a great addition.
“It has been a key element contributing to the increase in the number of women racing; this is guaranteed to be an exciting series for both competitors and spectators.”
Irish cycling's National Road Series 2017
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