The group that ran Rás Tailteann for decades, Cumann Rás Tailteann, is still trying to find a sponsor for the race with a view to running it again as a UCI event as soon as 2021.
If the plan comes to fruition it would mean a new group, Cáirde Rás Tailteann, that is stepping in to promote the race in 2020 would only run that one edition.
The race had been held as an eight-day UCI event for two decades. However, after FBD Insurance sponsored it for about 20 years An Post took over as title sponsor in a deal that ended in 2017.
No sponsor could be found for 2018 but thanks to the cash reserves built up by Cumann Rás Tailteann the race was still able to go ahead as an eight-day race retaining its UCI 2.2 grading.
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However, no sponsor could be found for 2019 and with the cash reserves spent on last year’s event no Rás took place this year for the first time since it began in 1953.
In order to hold a race in 2020 the new promotions group, Cáirde Rás Tailteann, was established and it will run the race next June as a five-day race and without UCI ranking.
The new group is comprised of officials well known on the Irish cycling scene and on the Rás; Ger Campbell, Ciaran McKenna, Colm Rigley, Eugene Moriarty, Seamus Domegan and Pat O’Shaughnessy.
In an interview with RTE Radio 1 Eimear Dignam, who was race promoter with Cumann Rás Tailteann in 2018, said her group was still working away at looking for a sponsor.
If that search proves successful, that group would once again take over as race promoter and would run the race once again with UCI grading.
Eimear Dignam, whose father Dermot Dignam ran the race
for many years, told RTE’s Saturday Sport that by the end of October there was
no sign of a sponsor being found.
Around that time, she added, members of the group that will run the race next year approached Dignam and her Cumann Rás Tailteann colleagues.
It was decided among all involved that the new group, Cáirde Rás Tailteann, would run the race next year.
“We didn’t actually pull the plug until we were sure we had something else,” Dignam said of Cumann Rás Tailteann allowing Cáirde Rás Tailteann to run the race next year.
“We all know we need a race of some calibre so it was fortuitous when the guys came to us.
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"And we made a decision; ‘yes, we are happy that you guys go ahead with a Rás Tailteann, we’re not going to run it as an eight day international race (in 2020)’. So it was a joint decision.”
Eimear added Cumann Rás Tailteann would now be available for any help or advice it could give to Cáirde Rás Tailteann, which it “fully supported”.
“Anything that we have in relation to Rás assets, equipment and stuff, that’s for the taking for (them) to use,” she said.
Dignam added the new group had the Rás and the development of Irish cycling “at their hearts”.
And that was why Cumann Rás Tailteann was happy for that new group to organise what will be a shorter, non UCI ranked, 2020 edition.
“In saying that, we are also going to continue in trying to get a sponsor for 2021 and try and get it back on the international calendar,” Dignam said.
However, once a Rás took place in some form, that was the key goal for now, she said. Dignam added the race had not started as an international event and that it may take some time to get back to UCI status.
Dignam explained while Ireland now had top pros who had cut their teeth on the Rás and more people than ever were cycling; racing was “a hard sport” and it was still not a “mass participation sport” in Ireland.
That made it harder to raise the budget of between €300,000 and €350,000 needed to run the UCI-ranked eight-day Rás.
However, for a sponsor the race brought huge exposure at home and abroad for what was an event all around Ireland.
“It’s not a huge amount of money,” she said. “With the right sponsor and the right understanding of the race it would be value for money.
“We’ve had great sponsors over the years; An Post for one and FBD Insurance were hugely supportive of us for 20 plus years.
“In an ideal world you would have a single sponsor who would come in and get fully involved... or two or three sponsors together.”
She had also spoken to the Junior Tour of Ireland and Rás na mBan organisers with a view to possibly offering the three races as one combined sponsorship proposition, though that had not been successful so far.
Ger Campbell of Cáirde Rás Tailteann also spoke to RTE. However, the subject matter of his interview has already been covered by stickybottle in a piece you can read here: Rás Tailteann set to refocus on Irish riders, more race details emerge.
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