The Shay Elliott Memorial in Bray, Co Wicklow, is down for decision tomorrow, Sunday, and as well as being arguably the most prestigious one-day race of the year it also represents the final test for those riding the An Post Ras.
Past winners include former Irish Olympians, internationals and professionals such as Sean Kelly, Martin Early, Malcolm Elliott, Ciaran Power and David O’Loughlin, and UCI president Pat McQuaid.
Race headquarters and sign on will be at Bray Wheelers club house on Schools Road in Bray. The sign on will be open from 9am-10.30am (no pre entry, sign on fee €15.00) with the race leaving the clubhouse at 11am for a rolling start on the N11.
There are prizes for the first 12 riders, first eight unplaced A2 riders and first Bray Wheeler’s rider as well as a Sprints and King of the Hills prize. The total prize fund is €1,000.
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This year’s race route will take riders on a 140km loop. There will be a sprint prime on the N11 and the KOH prime will be at Drumgoff at the Shay Elliott Memorial Monument at the summit at 105kms.
The race finish this year will be in Kilpeddar approximately 10km from the sign on in Bray.
The race is sponsored by Sinnott’s Skoda of Wicklow Town, Hollingsworth Cycles, Suzuki, www.mycycle.ie and www.base.ie.
The race was first run in 1958 and was known as the “Route de Cill Mhantain” but was renamed the Shay Elliott Memorial after Shay’s death in 1971. The tough event has a reputation for providing great racing and deserving champions and is a race that all riders would like to add to their list of victories. For more information contact Linus Devlin 086 2511469.
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In a week when our pre Ras coverage really began to ramp up, it was great to get word that a former multi stage winner in that race Noel Clarke is one of the drivers behind a new event to cater for those who would prefer to ride something a bit less punishing than the Shay Elliott.
Clarke and Ger Campbell are putting on the new Dunsany GP in Co Meath tomororow. The lads have decided to cater for A3/A4/Juniors as the Shay Elliott only caters for A1/A2 riders.
“The plan is to put on an event to facilitate these categories so that they are not the forgotten ones on this weekend,” said Campbell.
“We have no sponsors or anything and we are relying on the riders support to build a prize fund and pay for the ambulance etc. Going forward we would like to put this on each year to give these categories an event on that particular weekend, but we are totally relying on the riders support.”
The Dunsany GP sign on is at Dunsany GAA grounds from 9 30am. The A3/Jun is 4 x 17 km laps (68km) and the A4 race is 3 x 17 km laps (51km). The A3/Jun race starts at 11am and the A4 race starts at 11:04am. The women’s commission have decided to CANCEL the women’s national league race due to the Celtic Chrono TT in Belfast.
For more information on the Dunsany GP contact Ger at 086 8192205 [email protected] or Noel at 087 2727801.
Also down for decision tomorrow is the Jim O’Leary-Ken O’Keeffe Memorial being run by St Finbarr’s in Cork. For more information contact Russell Tracey 087 2305087. Newry Wheelers is also holding its Tour of the Mournes race tomorrow. For more information on that you can contact Mark Campbell on 07917519090.
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