By Shane Stokes
Sport Ireland CEO Dr Una May had previously given some hints that the decision to end the UCI Cyclocross World Cup in Dublin could be on the way. In a long conversation with stickybottle several weeks ago May indicated the future of the race was far from certain.
And now that we know the event is lost, May also said the lower turn-out by spectators last December was far from the only factor in the decision-making to call a halt. However, the official spectator figures she mentions in this interview, and the extent they declined, tell a significant story in themselves.
“We originally agreed with Flanders Classics that we would like to do a three-year stint," May said of the deal put in place with the UCI Cyclocross World Cup organisers for the 2022, 23 and 24 racing in Dublin.
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"That was our original agreement, that we’d commit to this for three years. So now it’s a question of, do we want to go beyond the three years?”
The answer to that is now known. The race is over. And while there would be nothing stopping the World Cup returning to Ireland at some point in the future, it certainly won’t be here in 2025.
So what happened?
Big Names Early On
The announcement that Dublin would host a round of the World Cup was major news back in 2022. So too the lineup for the first edition, with Tour de France green jersey Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) and Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) heading the men’s field.
Multiple world MTB and gravel bike world champion Pauline Ferrand Prevot (Ineos Grenadiers) spearheading that of the women.
She lined out against up-and-coming stars Fem Van Empel (Pauwels Sauzen-Bingoal) and Puck Pieterse (Alpecin Deceuninck), plus others.
The programme was supplemented by junior races prior to the World Cup events, as well as a programme of support events the day before.
There was a big buzz, crowds were very healthy, and an estimated 8,000 turned out to see Pidcock and Van Empel triumph.
However in 2023 and again this year the household names were missing from the men’s lineup. Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert started their seasons later both years, while Pidcock avoided any CX competition at all this winter.
That had a big effect on the crowds, with approximately 4,000 fans turning out in 2023 and fewer again this year.
May acknowledged this drop in support.
“I think it’s important to have those names. I do think that it brings people outside of the cyclocross niche kind of audience when you have the big names,” she said.
“So it was disappointing that we didn’t get them this year. However, to be fair, the UCI had completely transformed the calendar and made ours one of those protected races and all the rest in an attempt to try and ensure that we got those names.
“So it’s difficult for anyone to predict what’s going to happen in the long term when you when you commit to these events in the future. I think we would have to look at getting a later date [if the series had continued – ed.].
“But I understand that you’re trying to cram an entire World Cup series into two months. You’re trying to factor in the issue with riders having to travel a lot in the middle of the deepest winter, when there’s travel restrictions and weather conditions and all the rest. So there’s a lot of reasons why it may or may not be possible.”
Still, she did say that turnout wasn’t the be all and end all.
“I would agree the numbers were down. That’s a problem for the organizers, rather than for us. But from our point of view, I suppose the value of this event goes beyond just the number of spectators on the day.
“We promote and support lots of events for lots of sports. This one in particular is quite a positive opportunity for us because of the fact that it’s televised, which gives us an audience and a global audience beyond our own national [airwaves]…unfortunately, RTE doesn’t cover it.
“So that means not so much a national audience, but then the national audience is probably there in person.”
What is fair to assume is that a declining interest on the ground didn’t do the event any favours. Cycling in Ireland has waited a long time for an event of this calibre, and there is a valid argument that greater turnout might have made the future more viable.
Did May feel the community could have supported it better?
“Well, you would like to see people appreciate the fact that this is a world class event,” she answered. “Whilst we may not have had the names [in the men’s race], we still have the European champion and in the women’s race, we had the world champion, the World Cup leader. We had an awful lot of very high profile people on the campus.
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“So you would like to see people acknowledge that, and recognise that just because we didn’t have those two or three key names, that there were a lot of other very high calibre cyclists participating on the campus at the time.”
However she did give a thumbs up to the buy in from the community for the support races on the day before the World Cup.
“The guys from Flanders Classics are very impressed with that model. They’re very comfortable with how it works. In a way, it kind of helps the course in some ways, but it also is really nice to see that level of buy in from the local cycling community.”
"A Really Positive Review from the UCI"
The decision to axe the World Cup wouldn’t have been made by May alone. She was clear that a report would be drawn up and that everything would be weighed up carefully before a conclusion could be formed.
She noted that there were pluses, citing a positive reaction to the fan zone in December. It was tweaked compared to the previous editions in order to push the crowds closer together, and there were food stalls and promotional stands to boost the experience.
From a technical point of view, there was also a good reaction, which is a credit to many, including well known off-road figure Paddy Daly, who was in charge of building the course.
“The course changes were very popular and we got a very strong and really, really positive review from the UCI cycle cross commission,” May said. “It was very positive about the course, very positive about the facilities for the riders and stuff like that. We got a very strong endorsement from them.”
May noted that the nature of cyclocross is strong in showcasing the campus on a global scale, which was also a plus.
She also noted that Cycling Ireland had been through a difficult phase in recent years, and that there was value in what the World Cup weekend brought to the sport.
“One of the things we pushed for from day one with this event was that we could get junior races and under 23s,” May explained. “Not every round of the World Cup has those. So we’ve been very lucky to get those races every year we’ve run the event.
“We’ve said this is a fundamental criteria. We don’t want the event unless we get those because they are key to our kind of future legacy for the sport.”
Still, the need to back other sports was clearly on her mind. She noted that the previous year had seen Sport Ireland support European hockey qualifiers, badminton internationals, gymnastics internationals, swimming and other sports.
Hosting those kind of events confers an important legacy value, which needs to be weighed up in deciding how much investment and energy any one sport receives.
Was that a factor in the decision? Very likely.
"We Can't Spend All Our Time Focusing on Cycling Events"
So what is the future of the Sport Ireland campus?
It is continually evolving, with more additions likely in the coming years. May noted that the long-awaited indoor velodrome is on the way.
Other projects will also be built and while she said that having green space on the campus is a long term priority, she acknowledged that construction works of some of the bigger projects might affect the layout, even temporarily.
That need to boost other sports is also a consideration. Cycling had three years of the World Cup and Sport Ireland’s energy and emphasis will now likely shift elsewhere to confer benefits to other disciplines.
“We’d like to see at some point other big events,” she said. “We’d like to bring back the European cross country championships at some time in the future.
“We can’t spend all our time focusing on just cycling events. We also would have supported the Rás quite heavily in the last year, and the Rás na mBan. We have to consider all these different things as we decide whether or not it’s appropriate to hold the event here.
“And I think the falling numbers has to be considered as well, in that I don’t think a big name will completely transform that.”
That all pointed in one direction, even if a decision hadn’t been made at that time.
May has a job to do and needs to represent many sports. She does have a big personal interest in cycling and her daughter Caoimhe is one of the top domestic talents. She has spent plenty of time around the sport, but she and Sport Ireland have to take a broader view.
That was clear when she spoke to stickybottle.
“Maybe it’s time we took a break,” she said. “We have to look at all these things before we make a decision on this. We need to also see who else wants to run events. The government has established and has launched their major events policy.
“We have to develop one that aligns with that for the less major events. We’ve contributed a lot to golf. There’s so many other things going on, and we have to take into consideration when we make decisions about these kind of events.”
