By Shane Stokes
Rás Tailteann director Ger Campbell has spoken about the huge interest the race enjoys in Britain and elsewhere, saying the demand for entries has been off the scale. The race was recently confirmed as certain to go ahead this year, even if the full funding is not yet in place, and once again there will be a high number of overseas teams taking part.
“I could fill this race with British riders in the morning if I wanted,” Campbell said, commenting on the interest the organising committee Cáirde Rás Tailteann has received. “We already have seven or eight British teams confirmed, we have a team from America confirmed. All that information will come in due course.”
The British racing scene has been hit with various restrictions in recent years, with high policing costs and other issues making it difficult to run events. This has happened in spite of the cycling boom prompted by the Tour de France wins of Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome plus the country’s other successes, and means it has been increasingly difficult for British teams to compete domestically.
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The Rás has always been on the radar of teams from Britain and elsewhere, and appears to be at least as popular as ever, if not even more so.
However Irish riders need not panic; they will get priority. Campbell said that entries for Irish teams will be opened shortly and will be left open for a fortnight or so. “That will tell us how many Irish teams wants to come on board. And that will then tell us how many other teams we can let in, because we are maxed at 35 teams with the regulations.”
Need to move past "totally unsustainable" sponsor search
Campbell and the others on the Cáirde Rás Tailteann team have put a huge amount of energy into securing sponsorship. It is still without a title backer and, as was the case last year, will take place thanks to a number of smaller sponsors.
However he is clear that the last minute scenario can’t keep happening year on year. “It is totally unsustainable to do it this way going forward, because my energies for the past six weeks have been around funding, where they should have been around the nuts and bolts of the race.”
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He said that a recent meeting of Cáirde Rás Tailteann did see some plans discussed to try to overcome this issue. The best case scenario is, of course, a multi-year title sponsor as was previously in place with the likes of FBD Insurance and An Post. A number of smaller sponsors might also work, but he said that it is vital to do so much quicker than has been the case this year.
“You’ve absolutely got to progress things the next day after you leave Blackrock. Not the next month or two months after,” he said.
“I’m not saying running the race is simple, but trying to get the funding together it makes running the race seem simple [in comparison]. At least then you are just doing the work without any extra pressure on you. But to try to do both is crazy.”
Campbell recently confirmed that the race would indeed happen, and has released the route for the 2023 event. That is reassuring for Irish cycling, and comes after a lot of hard work. However there have had to be cutbacks to make the sums work.
“We closed the gap substantially, over the past week only,” he said recently. “We were speaking to one of the existing sponsors, one of those who sponsored a classifications last year. They have stepped up to sponsor the yellow jersey, which is a more lucrative sponsorship.
“We have bridged the gap substantially. We’ve brought down the cost substantially by being prudent. It was as much about bringing down the costs as getting money. So we were probably €40,000 short a couple of weeks ago, we’ve probably bridged that to about €12,000 now, so we’re getting there.”
Campbell said that negotiations were ongoing with at least one other potential sponsor. However there is a time limitation, meaning that things need to move relatively quickly if they are to happen.
“The problem is that anything that we’re going to use as a logo on a classification jersey has to be signed off on by the 20th of March,” he explained. “That’s the lead time for the jersey manufacturer. So we’ve got to work on the design of them over the coming weeks.
“Look, I’m sure if we get a sponsor on the 22nd of March it can be added on, but.. As I said, there are still pokers in the fire. I’m far more optimistic than I was a few weeks ago. We’re getting there.”
