The early-season races may not be quite so early if some of the changes now being proposed are introduced. Many of the reforms are being pushed by Cycling Ireland’s road commission (Photo: George Doyle)
Changes proposed for Irish road cycling scene
A raft of changes to how the domestic road racing season works are down for discussion at the Cycling Ireland annual general meeting next month.
Rule changes have been proposed by a range of clubs and also Cycling Ireland’s road commission.
If they were accepted, those new to racing would not be permitted to ride A4 races in their first year.
And juniors would be able to ride above their current A3 level. The start of the racing season could also be delayed.
The AGM takes place on November 11th at the Canal Court Hotel, Newry Co Down.
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Fintona CC is proposing changes to the way riders can transfer between clubs.
It wants to add the following conditions to the current rules that allow rider transfers mid season as long as both clubs agree:
“Only one such transfer will be permitted in any calendar year. A rider granted permission to transfer will be ineligible to compete for a period of 14 days from date of transfer.”
Motion 6 deals with the starting date for the domestic road racing season.
At present there is no date limit as to when the season can start. And in recent years the campaign start has edged a little earlier to mid February.
Banbridge CC is proposing to restrict the start of the season until, at the earliest, “the first Saturday in March”.
And Cycling Ireland’s road commission wants to see the season start no earlier than “the last Saturday in February”.
Emyvale CC is proposing that a club must have a minimum of 20 members in order to be regarded as a club; significantly higher than the six members required at present.
The Cycling Ireland road commission is proposing to increase the number of points A3 riders must have in any one year to progress to A2 level; from 10 points at present to 15 in the future.
The new total would include points carried from the previous year.
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The commission also wants A4 riders with 13 points to be promoted to A3, and not 15 points as is the case currently.
And the commission is proposing another change that would see A2 riders with less than 15 points at season end carry half of those points through to the next year. At present all points are carried to the following season.
For A1 riders applying for a downgrade to A2 should they fail to score six points in a seaon; the road commission is proposing they would downgrade to A2 and start with five points rather that starting at A2 with seven points, which is the case under existing rules.
Cycling Ireland’s road commission is also proposing changes to the way national road race and TT championships are run.
Specifically, it wants to re-arrange what races are run on what has traditionally been elite championships weekend in June and the second junior, A3 and Masters TT weekend late in the season.
The commission now wants to hold the men’s and woman’s elite TTs on the same day as the male and female junior TTs.
And they want to hold the junior – male and female – road races on the same weekend as the elite men’s and women’s road races.
As a result, the Masters road races would be grouped with the A3 road race – four events in total – to be run as part of the same promotion. And the three Masters TT title races would be run as a standalone fixture.
The road commission also wants to introduce a system whereby new entrants to racing are granted an A4 licence.
The new rule would state competitive newcomers be first granted a limited competition licence and only the following season would they be eligible for an A4 licences.
Likewise, juniors new to the sport will only get a limited competition licence only in their first year.
The road commission also wants to introduce a minimum race distance of 70km for A4 riders. At present there are no minimum race distances.
It also wants strong junior riders to be able to ride as an A2. Currently juniors ride as A3s and they are only upgraded to A2 or A1 when they age out of the junior ranks.
But the Cycling Ireland road commission now wants the following:
“A youth rider on becoming a junior will be graded as A3. However upon reaching 60 points as a first year junior he may be upgraded to A2 for the remainder of that season. As a 2ndyear junior he will commence the season as an A3 on zero points.
“However on reaching 30 points he may be upgraded to A2 for the rest of that season. Such a junior will continue to ride the junior gearing… be exempt from the junior maximum distance and will be entitled to ride junior only events.”
Omagh Wheelers is also proposing that as juniors score points they should be allowed to progress through the categories in line with A3 and A2 criteria.
There is also a proposal that juniors with more than 50 points in their second year can start the following season as a senior at higher than A3 level, with the permission of a national development coach.
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