By Shane Stokes
One of the key individuals behind the cyclocross World Cup’s return to Ireland, Sport Ireland chief executive Una May, has spoken about the importance of the UCI decision, believing that it could have far-reaching consequences for Irish cycling and also for Irish sport in general.
May was reacting to the announcement last week that round five of the World Cup will be held in Dublin on November 26th.
The Sport Ireland campus in Abbotstown previously hosted the race last December, attracting some of the top names in the sport, as well as a strong crowd. It was the first-ever hosting of a World Cup race here, and was widely deemed a success.
“We held internal reviews about the World Cup,” May previously explained to stickybottle last month. “We discussed it with Flanders Classics and we discussed it with Cycling Ireland, and generally we were all very happy. There were a few little hiccups, but we took the event on at very, very late notice last year. So it was inevitable that there’d be some hiccups.
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“We all agreed that the potential learnings were so great that we should put in a bid again, and we have now done that.”
That bid has since transformed into a confirmed fixture, with the UCI officially giving a green light via last Wednesday’s announcement of the full UCI Cyclocross World Cup for the 2023-24 season, with Dublin confirmed among the other host locations.
“We can get excited now,” May told stickybottle in another call, soon after that news was made public. “We’ve allocated the funding for this event. So this is confirmed, this is a certainly. That’s the official calendar now, so we will see everybody on the 26th of November.
She said that hosting the race fits strongly with the organisation’s goals.
“The key thing for Sport Ireland is that we see our role as the development of sport. As part of that, we recognize the importance of hosting international events. Our intention is with the campus that we will host two to three major international events in any one year. This year, we’re hosting under 23 European Swimming Championships, and we’re hosting European qualifiers for hockey as well.
“We’ll have approximately three high-level international events on the campus every year, which is consistent with our overall vision for the campus.”
The UCI World Cup is one of those three this year and, as May points out, will offer something some other sports may lack.
“From our point of view, and from the point of view of the campus, it’s of particular value to host outdoor events. If we are able to host perhaps one major outdoor event each year, that’s very valuable to showcase the campus. It also opens it out for much greater numbers of spectators; none of our facilities on the campus could hold the kind of spectator numbers that this event would have.
“It also allows us to open up the campus to the wider community, outside of our own sports community.”
Cyclo-cross ticks those boxes perfectly, and so the World Cup returns.
Building a legacy
While cyclo-cross may not be as well known to the general public as road racing - something which is showcased every year with events such as the Tour de France - it does have a big advantage. It is extremely spectator friendly, with dramatic racing taking place on challenging terrain and over short laps.
The footprint of cyclo-cross courses is relatively small, allowing spectators to view the races from multiple locations and to see the riders many times. Throw in the cowbells, the airhorns and the chainsaws and you have an atmosphere which is both rich and unique.
Those characteristics offer a strong potential to get the public on board, perhaps as a family day out. And so attracting those people to the campus next November will be a big goal for Sport Ireland, Cycling Ireland and race organiser Flanders Classics, and could have a big knock-on effect for the future.
Having already hosted the event once before translates into a head start for this year. Last time round, the race saw some of the top names in world cyclo-cross competing, including men’s winner Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma), who is also the Tour de France green jersey winner.
The-then world champion Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) was there, as was women’s World Cup victor and Dublin round winner Fem van Empel (Pauwels Sauzen-Bingoal) plus many others.
An estimated crowd of 8,000 spectators turned up for the contest, a number hailed by UCI World Cup organisers Flanders Classics as the biggest outside its Belgian and Dutch events.
A good outcome this year would be an even bigger crowd, particularly if those who didn’t previously follow the sport leave newly passionate about it. That would be one of the legacy effects May and Sport Ireland are hoping for.
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Another is that the World Cup would act as a boost to our up and coming riders.
“What’s really, really important for us is that the fact that we’ve been successful in getting an under 23 and junior World Cup,” May explained.
“Because from our point of view, we have we have a lot of different considerations when we bring [a race like this here – ed.] It’s important that we look at a number of different angles, such as working with our partners in the likes of Fingal (County Council) around the tourism benefits. But most importantly, from our point of view, it’s the legacy for the sport. To be able to have a World Cup race for the juniors and the under 23s is really important for that legacy.”
Nurturing home talent
Ireland has some very strong young riders such national senior champion Dean Harvey (Trinity Racing), junior men’s champion Liam O’Brien (Fermoy CC), Aine Doherty (VC Glendale), who won three out of the four rounds in the Cycling Ireland National Series despite being just 16 years of age, fellow junior rider Hannah McClorey (RFDA), silver medallist in the senior nationals, plus overall national series winner Stephanie Roche (Scott Bright Motor Group).
There are several other emerging talents too, including May’s own daughter Caoimhe. Travelling to races with her will have immersed May in the sport over the years, something which will have put cyclo-cross high on her radar.
What’s significant for Ireland is that only five out of the 14 rounds of the World Cup will feature World Cup races for the youth categories. It’s no accident that this country secured one of those, but rather something May said was pushed for during negotiations with the UCI.
“We didn’t end up with the same date we had last year,” she explained. “There was a strong discussion at an international level around the dates. Our compromise was that we didn’t get the December date that we had last year, but in exchange, we did get the junior and under 23 races, which was, I thought a very good, successful outcome in the end.
“It’s difficult when there’s a negotiation and everybody wants a date that’s seen as a prime date.”
So what’s the difference between the original December date and a new one three weeks earlier? The most immediate issue was a schedule clash with another stakeholder on the campus. However May said that Sport Ireland is fortunate to have a very good relationship with all of their major stakeholders, and that it was possible to solve the November 26th clash by rejigging other events.
Another question raised by the new date is how it might affect the strength of the field. In other years the earlier fixture may - in theory at least - presented problems for road riders such as Van Aert, Pidcock, Matthieu Van der Poel and others, who each take some time away from racing at the end of the road season. However May notes that a significant change to the road programme this season may play in Dublin’s favour.
“We’re optimistic that with the restructuring of the calendar this year, with the world championships being in August, that maybe some of the riders will take their autumn break a little bit earlier. Therefore we might be lucky in getting the top riders over anyway.
“It’s just about getting that balance, really. (On the flip side) a lot of the pro teams often do their camps in December. This (date) means we avoid that risk of losing people because of that.”
Bigger and better
Hosting the first-ever round of a cyclo-cross World Cup last year was a huge deal for Irish sport. The race was originally expected to be held in London, though, and the decision to switch to Dublin meant that the build-up was shorter than would normally be the case.
Those involved have far more time on hand this time around. Some preparatory work has already been done, including the securing of the budget needed to run the race. Flanders Classics and Sport Ireland will invest in the event, while Fingal County Council and Failte Ireland are also understood to be involved.
Things are well in motion and there’s still a full nine months until the race happens.
May’s goal is that this year’s event will be bigger and better than that of December. She believes that there was a lack of awareness of the World Cup last time around, and that this can be tackled in the months ahead.
“I heard a lot of people said that they didn’t realize it was on. It’s disappointing to hear that people missed the opportunity,” she said. “I think that the cycling community were very aware of it, but I think the people who are not directly involved in the cycling community may not have been. It mightn’t have hit their radar. Although, to be fair, there were a few opportunities with the coverage we got in the few weeks in advance.
“But this does allow us to open up the doors to the non-cycling community. I think is really important that people see this other side to cycling that most people wouldn’t know about.”
Work will continue in the coming weeks and months to ensure that the race is as successful as possible. December was a great start; Sport Ireland, Flanders Classics, Cycling Ireland and the other partners will aim higher again.
One of the areas to be looked at is TV coverage. “We have a little bit more of a lead in time, so we can discuss with RTE as well to make sure that we try and get some home coverage of the event and that it’s not only on Eurosport,” May said. “There’s lots of things we can do better this year now that we have a bit more time.”
Making that sort of progress is what spurs May and others on.
“You want to take the learnings and grow the event and make it stronger as you go forward. So it’s great that we were able to get the race again. It was a huge success from many perspectives last year, so we’re happy to reinvest again this time.”
