The organisers of the Gorey Three Day have revealed a new route for the 2020 Easter Bank Holiday edition of the race and new categories to add incentives across the field.
After years of fantastic promotion, Irish Road Club has passed on the baton to the local club and the race will be based in Gorey, Co Wexford, for all three stages.
The fact the event will not race from, and back to, Blessington means a completely new route for two of the three stages; full details of which can be found below.
Furthermore, you can enter now for the race by following this link.
There will also be a women's race this time around; run on a handicapped basis within the main event and with a leader's jersey and queen of the hills jersey for the category leaders.
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Aside from the usual yellow, points and climbers' jerseys for the overall event, there will also be a junior category leader's jersey and an A3 leader's jersey.
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Race director Derek Webb has said the introduction of the red A3 leader's - and overall winner's - jersey is designed to give the A3 riders an extra prize to aim for in the event the race is dominated by juniors, as has been the case at times.
There is no TT stage this year, though Webb says this will be kept under review. And while the women's race is being held within the main event this time, Webb and his team are working towards a separate women's race.
It sounds like sensible planning in relation to the women's category and the addition of extra classification jerseys also seems like an excellent new idea.
So that's the good news. What of the bad? That probably comes in the shape of the queen stage on Sunday; stage 2 including a climb that was used in the National Hill Climb Championships back in 2016.
Gorey Three Day 2020: The New Route
Stage 1: Saturday, April 11th
At 96km the stage will start and finish in the village of Craanford and will feature a 24km circuit raced four times with a KOM prime on each time through Craanford at the finish line. This stage is the same route that has been used on Sunday for many years so will be familiar to anyone who has ridden the race during that period.
Stage 2: Sunday, April 12th
This is the queen stage with five categorised climbs. The race will start in Gorey and proceed out the N11 north towards Arklow before turning left at a small garage called Inch. The first ascent is the cat 3 at Coolgreany soon followed by the cat 1 climb through the village of Ballyfad. The cat 1, the only one of the weekend, is the same incline Mark Dowling won an elite Hill Climb Championships on and it comes just 15km into the stage. The riders will then race on to White Heaps, passing through it and starting the cat 3 at Pallas; a short sharp test. About 3km later the race turns left for The Gap, descending them into Coolafancy on narrow roads. Soon after Coolafancy the race will turn left onto the Carnew-Aughrim road and will head towards Holts Pass; a gradual cat 2 climb of just over 1km. After that the race turns in Carnew and proceeds to Craanford, from the north, for the last of the stage’s climbs, another cat 3. The route then takes the riders to Camolin before turning right on the N11 towards Ballycanew and then bound for Gorey. It passes through the start-finish line at the Amber Springs Hotel, with the riders set to race through and out onto a 22km lap. That brings the race onto the Gorey ring road back to Camolin and Ballycanew before finishing in Gorey.
Stage 3: Monday, April 13th
After the hardest test posed by the
previous day’s Sunday stage, the Easter Monday stage is intended as one for the
sprinters, though in an early season stage race anything can happen on a
so-called easier course. The final stage will start on Gorey’s Main St and will
bring the riders towards Camolin on the N11; an open an undulating stretch.
Before reaching Camolin, the race takes a sharp left onto what is described as
a narrow and fast country road towards Ballycanew. The race again turns left on
to the R741 and heads back to Gorey. That circuit will be raced four times for
a total of 95km.
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