Cycling Ireland has announced there will be no Irish team in the An Post Rás next month, ending a tradition of national representation that stretches back many decades.
The association said the increased number of Irish riders now competing with professional teams on the Continent effectively means there are too few strong riders to select from to justify entering a national team in the race. The last rider to win the Rás on the Ireland team was David McCann back in 2004 (pictured).
It is not clear if there will ever again be an Ireland team in the event.
A statement on the matter released by Cycling Ireland this evening, Tuesday, refers only to the 2012 edition. However, it suggests the association believes the era of full senior national representation in Ireland’s biggest race is over. It hopes to enter a development team in the years ahead, though not this year.
The Cycling Ireland statement reads:
“For 2012 there will be no Irish national team in the An Post Rás. This is a reflection of the changed structures within the sport over recent years resulting in Irish riders registered with UCI teams taking part in the race not (being) eligible for national selection. This same group of riders will be competing in U23 Nations Cup events and other UCI races later in the year, where there will be no clash with their team programs. Whilst on the face of what may look like a disappointing development, it is pleasing that our more promising riders are placed with professional teams.”
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Cycling Ireland’s acting high performance director, Geoff Liffey said with the development structures now in place he was hopeful that in the “near future” there would be “sufficient depth to field a competitive development team”.
The situation has come about because so many Irish riders are now registered with Continental teams that regularly send their own selections to the race.
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Even if the Irish riders on those teams are not picked for their trade team to ride the Ras they cannot ride the race on a national team. This is because riders are banned by the UCI from riding on national or regional teams in races where they would be effectively riding against their own trade team.
It means, for example, that Irish riders on the An Post-Sean Kelly team who might not be picked on that team for the Ras, cannot ride the race on an Irish team.
With teams like NODE4 Giordana, Rapha Condor-Sharp, Metaltek SCOTT, RTS Racing and IG Sigma Sports all expected to ride this year’s race, any Irish rider with those teams is ineligible for national selection for this year’s An Post Ras.
This includes (respectively) Sean Downey, Sam Bennett, Connor McConvey, Ronan McLaughlin, Philip Lavery, Felix English, Stephen Halpin, David McCann, Martyn Irvine and Peter Hawkins.
Cycling Ireland obviously believes with those riders unavailable there is not the strength in depth among the ranks of other Irish riders to justify entering a national team in the race.
This will be very disappointing for a whole group of strong young riders based on the Continent in teams just below Continental level. It also means domestically based Irish riders have no chance to represent Ireland in the national race, just as Paul Griffin did last year.
His selection also had the benefit of enabling him to impart the experience he has gathered at the top level over many years to much younger riders like Connor Dunne, Sean Downey and Felix English as he did during last year’s race.
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