The domestic racing season is yet to start but already Irish cycling has seen plenty of drama it the last couple of weeks; some of it good - indeed great - but other developments presenting real worries.
In recent years the home scene has been under pressure, with racing numbers down and some events being cancelled or put on ice. Cycling Ireland has developed a strategic plan to breathe life back into the sport and it's impact will become clear in the weeks and months ahead.
For all our sakes, stickybottle really hopes it works. In time, hopefully we will be able to look back on 2025 as the year when the ship was stablisied and a revival began.
However, before that plan is tested, and Irish road cycling gets an annual check-up in the next few months, there are already some big developments to discuss.
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Lara Gillespie's and Mia Griffin's strong start
Gillespie (UAE Team ADQ) and Griffin (Roland) are both World Tour riders this year and have just taken in their first stage race of the season, the World Tour-ranked UAE Tour. Both gave Irish cycling fans plenty to cheer and they can each take lots of encouragement from their performances.
Between them, they placed in the top 10 on three of the four stages. Griffin sprinted to a very strong 4th place on the opening stage, while Gillespie was 9th. The next day, Gillespie went all out from the start, spending over 100km in the breakaway, and eventually finished 3rd. And on yesterday's final stage, Gillespie was 9th.
In its long and storied history, Irish cycling has never had two female riders racing like this at World Tour level, making UAE Tour 2025 a real breakthrough.
The fact Griffin took 4th on the opening stage suggests she can really get amongst it this season. Gillespie's performance in the crosswinds of stage 2 was an epic ride confirming her world class status on the road. The most exciting thing is that they look like they are just getting started. They have a full road season ahead to further develop and take results including, we hope, wins. Photo by Ivan Benedetto-Sprint Cycling Agency
Losing UCI Cyclocross World Cup Dublin
Anyone who attended the UCI Cyclocross World Cup in Dublin over the last three seasons will have witnessed some great racing. But they also witnessed a bumper crowd in the first year, followed by a smaller turn-out over the following two editions.
And now the Dublin round has been dropped from the 2025-26 World Cup in a bitter blow for Irish cycling. Just as it seemed the Dublin round was becoming established - at least in terms of the number of rounds promoted - it has been dropped.
It appears the smaller crowds - which looked worrying - simply made the event unsustainable. Given the logistical challenges of bringing riders, staff and vehicles to the races, coming to Dublin was always going to be a big undertaking for the teams.
In the first year, Wout van Aert (Visma Lease a Bike) and Tom Pidcock, then with Ineos Grenadiers, both came to Dublin to race. All that was missing was Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck). However, Pidcock and, especially, Van Aert really drew the crowds - 8,000 to be precise.
That was seen as a major win, by race promoters Flanders Classics and for Sport Ireland, on whose Dublin campus the race was held. However, the bigger races in Europe regularly attract twice or three times that number, and some can do so without the big three being present.
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For Dublin, 8,000 in year one was a great start, indeed it was fantastic. But it still needed to be maintained. In reality, those numbers needed to grow to guarantee the race's future.
But once the novelty of the first year wore off, and the big names of the men's scene did not come for the next two editions, the crowds fell away. The three years of the Dublin round coincided with a period of the big three scaling back their cyclocross seasons, due to injury or because they were more focused on their road seasons.
Ultimately, it seems cycling fans in Ireland were perhaps most interested in seeing the stars racing. Irish fans seemed less interested in watching first class cyclocross racing by the top specialists, which is what the crowds are built on in Europe. Photo by Toby Watson
Sam Bennett's false start
Like all sprinters, Bennett (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) was looking to get his season started with a strong result, lining up on the opening stage, of a planned five, at Etoile de Bessèges (2.1) last Wednesday. He was in contention until the road kicked up to the line and then lost ground, fading to 70th.
Thursday's stage 2 was a more conventional sprinters' finish, with Bennett finishing 9th; solid, but not enough to contest for the victory. He looked like he didn't quite have the legs, not helped poor positioning leaving him trapped behind a wall of riders on the finishing straight.
The following day, amid concerns about civilian traffic posing dangers on the course, Bennett's team was among eight squads to withdraw from the race. It was a disappointing start for the Irishman, both in terms of not really being in the fight to win a stage and also missing the benefit of a first stage race when it was cut short for him.
It was precisely the kind of start Bennett didn't need, especially after his season petered out last summer, when he abandoned a number of stage races with stomach issues and then called it quits at the end of August.
Missing out on completing a full Etoile de Bessèges is no exactly a crisis for Bennett. However, it does represent a messy start to a season in a year when he needs to take results, preferable some wins, early in the campaign. Photo by Nathalie Teyssier
Mondello Series cancelled, or maybe not
Even before it was confirmed the UCI Cyclocross World Cup Dublin was lost, Usher Irish Road Club announced it was stepping away from promoting its season-long Mondello Series in Mondello Park, Co Kildare. The series had run for about 15 years so its loss is a big set-back for Irish cycling.
Irish Road Club is also a club with a lot of expertise in running good quality racing; from a race promotion, commissaire and technical perspective. And to see that group stepping back was a shock.
However, the same group has certainly done its bit, and some, for Irish cycling for decades. They deserve nothing but our thanks. They have done a fantastic job and will continue to contribute in other ways. But nobody can continue a full-on effort forever and people have lives away from cycling.
A chink of light, on a seemingly depressing situation, came when Cycling Ireland told stickybottle it has been working in the background, with other clubs, on a plan that would see racing continue in Mondello this season.
It was good to see the national federation stepping in to try and help rescue the situation, though, as Roy Keane might say, "it's their job". Joking aside, we wish them well and hope other clubs can indeed try to fill Usher IRC's boots, which won't be easy.
But if the cycling community loses a season-long series of races on a closed circuit - where traffic, the Garda and local residents are not issues - it would be a massive setback. And it would set a troubling tone at the start of the year that everyone hopes could bring a revival in the fortunes of Irish road racing. Photo by Sean Rowe
