New Munster club Cork County CC has attracted a financial backer for the 2012 season in the shape of the Finance First insurance and mortgage company.
The club’s main organiser, Will Curtin told stickybottle that he and his clubmates are planning a campaign to develop underage riders, with a view to growing schoolboy cycling again in the south.
Despite not yet being one year in existence, the club is also planning to have a senior team in Ras Mumhan and the An Post Ras and is hoping to organise a city centre race in Cork City.
Away from the competitive side of the sport, it is also planning a sportive charity event for Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind.
“We’re putting a big push to try and get underage riders back into the sport,” said Curtin, whose own company Wills Wheels Bike Store is one of a number Cork County CC secondary sponsors.
“We’ll have our first underage guys on the road this season and from here we are looking to double our underage numbers in the first season alone.”
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“I think it’s been a major downfall in the past in Ireland, that you lose major numbers of talented cyclists when they leave the junior ranks to go on to race as seniors. Our goal is to have a realistic change-over period that gives them a chance to stay in the sport without too much pressure early on in their first senior season.”
Curtin said Cork County CC also wants to encourage people already riding sportives to try their hand at racing.
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“That’s where our title sponsor Finance First has come in,” he says.
“Through feedback we received from people doing the sportives, we’ve discovered that the majority would find it exciting to try racing but they’re very concerned that if they fell off and broke something they would lose their income. So being sponsored by an insurance company that offers a specific policy to cover that; we think that’s a good fit for us.”
The club is in the planning stages of its blind dogs charity ride and hopes to attract over 1,000 riders.
“We’re selling the spaces on the jersey to sponsors at the moment, so we’re working away on that.”
Curtin added that some places on the club’s Ras Mumhan and An Post Ras teams would go to seniors who had ridden as A4s last year and had only taken up cycling in the past 12 to 18 months. The club wanted to attract new blood into the sport rather than “recycling” riders who had been around for many years.
As well as Finance First and the new Wills Wheels Bike Store in Douglas, other Cork County CC sponsors for 2012 include: Fitness Worx Gym in Douglas and the Squeezy Sports Nutrition brand.
We’ll bring you the club’s new kit when we get some photos.
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