Just a day after the organisers of the Gorey Three Day announced the race would not go ahead on its traditional Easter Bank Holiday dates, Tralee Manor West BC has said the Lacey Cup is also off.
However, the Tralee club has said its event is postponed rather than cancelled as it is intended to run the race later in the year.
The Lacey Cup – always a big fixture and much sought-after win - is the first one-day race to be postponed and it was due to be held on Sunday, March 7th.
That date is just two days after the current lock-down period in the Republic of Ireland is due to end. The lock-down had been due to conclude at the end of this month but has now been extended for a further five weeks, until Friday, March 5th.
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However, the organisers of the Lacey Cup said they simply could not press ahead with their plans to hold the race on March 7th.
“Health and safety are absolutely paramount in the
logistical organisation of the Lacey
Cup to protect club members, participants, volunteers and the wider general public and the current climate would have made that impossible,” Tralee
Manor West BC said.
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“We would
like to thank our sponsors for their continued support and we will post any
updates about rescheduling the event at a later date in 2021 as soon as we have
the relevant information or when a decision is made.”
While Covid-19 now clearly having an impact on the start
of the road season, there is growing hope that the lock-down conditions currently
in place may be eased from March 5th.
The number of new Covid-19 cases, which had surged to 8,000 cases on some days after Christmas, has now fallen significantly, with 928 cases announced today.
While still high, that was the lowest daily total in a month and the decline in cases is happening as the vaccine programme is being rolled out.
Extra restrictions on foreign travel and people entering the country have also been announced, which can hopefully help to keep cases down when they fall further in coming days and weeks.
The optimistic outlook is that the lock-down measures will be eased when the extended deadline of March 5th is reached.
However, whether gatherings and sports events would be allowed at that time, or perhaps shortly after that date, is still unclear and will be watched closely by the cycling community.
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