The Gorey Three Day will not take place this year, with the event cancelled for 2025 due to a "collapse" in the number of riders entering.
The development is a major blow for Irish cycling. It means the number of stage races - certainly for this year - that will be promoted during the Easter Bank Holiday Weekend is now down to one; Dornan Rás Mumhan.
For many years the Irish scene had three races taking place over the Easter weekend, including the Gorey Three Day, Rás Mumhan and International Tour of the North, which was due to return in 2022 after the pandemic but has not been run in the past-Covid years.
The Gorey Three Day had flagged in recent weeks the event was in danger, urging riders to register by March 28th, three weeks before the event was scheduled to take place. Stickybottle understands when the first recent appeal for entries went out, fewer than 20 riders had signed up.
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Though those numbers had crept up to 62, the decision has been made to cancel the event for this year. Ten years ago, the number of riders entering the race was at 200. There were 155 entries in 2017 and 104 in 2018.
The organisers of the race said it was "with regret" they had taken the decision to cancel the 2025 edition, "due to a significant drop in rider entries".
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"Rider entries have completely collapsed," said race director Derek Webb. "We will regroup, resubmit for next season and, in the meantime, try to get a handle on why the entries were so low."
They added "to better understand the situation" they will be distributing a survey to riders to identify potential areas of improvement for the 2026 season, adding they were grateful to those riders who had entered.
"I would like to thank the riders who did register," said Webb, adding entry fee refunds will be processed in the coming weeks. However, some 62 riders had entered by the end of last week and this was "well short on what's needed to make the event viable".
Webb added one rider contacted the race asking if prize money was on offer, suggesting there was no point entering if there were no prizes.
"You do scratch your head a times and ask why do you bother," he said, adding he would try and get the race back on the road for next season.
Though the cancelation of the race was very disappointing, Webb said the staff at Cycling Ireland had done their best to assist, as had Brian Hayden of Cycling Leinster, who had made "exceptional efforts".
