Adam Armstrong in yellow at last year’s Tour of Ulster, he won’t get to defend the title next season (Photo: Marian Lamb – Cycling Ulster)
With the 2012 domestic road racing season having closed just the weekend before last when the National Hill Climb Championship was settled, news has emerged that the Tour of Ulster and the Portaferry Three Day will be missing from next year’s fixture list.
The Tour of Ulster is run by the Ulster Cycles Promotions Club and while it appeared as recently as two weeks ago that the next edition of the race was already in the planning stages, lack of support has scuppered it.
The Ulster Cycles Promotions Club held its AGM last week at which it was decided there was insufficient volunteer support to the run the race in a professional manner.
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The organisers were experiencing specific difficulties in sourcing civilian motorbike marshals to offer support to the PSNI motorbikes normally assigned to the race.
In the case of the Portaferry Three Day, the organisers Ards CC felt the degree of rider support for the event was simply not up to the level they believed was needed to run a truly competitive race.
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The absence of the Tour of Ulster in particular will be a major blow, with the race usually run on the May Bank Holiday weekend, just a fortnight before the An Post Rás. It has traditionally acted as a very useful fine-tuning exercise for many riders, with some of the UK pro teams also regularly making the trip to Ireland for some racing before tackling the Rás.
Node 4 Giordana was just one such team that made the trip this year and while they enjoyed some strong performances, they were outgunned on the final day when Adam Armstrong (Eurocycles) and Ryan Sherlock (Cycleways CC) forged ahead in a two-man breakaway on a rain-sodden day to take overall and stage victory respectively.
The race had been pencilled in to run from May 4th to 6th next year. It has been won in the past by some very good riders including Sé O’Hanlon, David Lloyd, Billy Kerr, Philip Cassidy, Tommy Evans and the McCann brothers Cormac and David.
The Portaferry Three Day was run this year from Friday July 20th to Sunday 22nd and was won in great style by Fraser Duncan (Eurocycles).
However, it attracted a field of just 40 riders this year and that lack of support coupled with difficulties in sourcing volunteers to help run the event has seen its abandonment for next year. This is despite having attracted sponsorship from www.spin11.com this year.
It is unclear if it is too late to rescue the events for next year, but we will keep you posted with any developments.
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