Matthew Sparrow and Conor Hennebry celebrate a Dan Morrissey-MIG-Pactimo 1-2 at the main event in the Lacey Cup in Co Kerry back in March. Racing was suspended shortly after the first weekend of the season (Photo: George Doyle)

Cycling Ireland has published its provisional racing calendar for 2021, across all disciplines. The season is due to start, as ever, on the first weekend in March despite the Covid-19 pandemic.

Clearly all racing plans,
especially at the start of the year, will depend on the situation with the
pandemic and what sports are permitted at the time.

However, the national governing body has pressed ahead and formulated a full schedule of events across road, track, BMX, MTB and all other disciplines.

“It should be noted that these
events are published on a provisional basis and are subject to change pending
Government restrictions,” Cycling Ireland stressed when publishing the calendar
for 2021.

The road racing season gets
underway on the first weekend of March, when racing began last year only to be
suspended due to the pandemic after a handful of events.

The road racing season gets
underway on Saturday, March 6^th, with the Mick Lally Memorial
fixture in Leinster, the Rás Maigheo Youth Two-Day Stage Race
in Connacht and the Travers Engineering Annaclone GP in Ulster.

The following day will see the Castlebar
GP in Connacht being contest as well as the Lacey Cup in Munster, Phoenix GP in
Ulster and Seamus Kennedy Memorial Road Race in Leinster.

After the opening month of the
season – see full schedule below – the road racing scene will move into the
Easter Weekend with the usual events taking place, including Rás Mumhan, Gorey
Three Day and Tour of the North.

We’ve included the full first month of road racing below. However, you can view the full calendar for the year, and for all disciplines, by following this link.