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The Rás is the season focal point but having it so early in the year is damaging the domestic calendar
The creation of a season-long classic league, organised by Cycling Ireland and backed by a corporate sponsor, could help spread the quality races through the season, writes columnist Barry Meehan. And family friendly events are needed to make the sport more attractive to go and watch.
There was an air of anticipation in the training group on Sunday. Winter is here, the racing season is over and the training season is fast approaching. It’s a time for fresh starts where any lacklustre performances during the spring and summer can be forgotten and new goals can be set.
For some, the racing season has been over for quite a while now and the legs are fresh and minds are keen.
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But is the season now becoming disjointed, especially for our A1/A2 riders?
The wisdom of the past was to always finish out the season. This makes you stronger for next year. But very few A1 and A2 riders now race a full season from March to September.
The Rás is always the main goal for the best domestic riders, which leads to a huge anti climax afterwards. The Suir Valley Three Day is a great race to fill this void but out of the 82 domestic based riders who lined up in Dunboyne on the 21st of May only 17 were in Clonmel for the August Bank Holiday weekend.
If this were to become a five-day event would it further capture the imagination of the Irish cycling elite or would the extra time needed off work make it difficult to have a full line-up for the last two days?
The National Championships are more or less beyond the reach of most domestic based A1 and A2 riders. The professionals come home along with the continental based amateurs, blow the race apart on the first lap and by lap three many domestic riders are in a leisure tour cruising around at 25 kph.
The A2, A3 and A4 riders have the Charleville Two Day at the beginning of September which still gets good numbers, but can something be done to keep the interest alive for the A1 riders and thus improve standards in general?
Many good A1 riders in their early twenties now race abroad. Like most racing categories, the bulk of A1’s are in their thirties or even forties and have wives, girlfriends and children who become a priority during the summer months.
In the winter it is relatively easy to be gone for training for three, four or five hours on a cold wet Sunday morning. In spring families like to go and watch the races on Sundays but when the evenings get longer during the so-called Irish summer months, other things take from the allure of watching a bike race.
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Perhaps if more of a focus were placed on family inclusion these riders may find it easier to include their families in race days and see out the season.
In Clonmel for the National Championships this year the organisers had a bouncy castle, stilt walkers and face painting for the kids. The race passed through the centre of town roughly every 20 minutes and there was a great carnival atmosphere.
If race organisers were to combine their summer races with food fares, festivals or other local events perhaps there would be more for all the family to do. It might also open up the spectacle of bike racing to a whole new audience and encourage newcomers to the sport.
Organising a bike race is a difficult and often thankless job that is almost always undertaken by members of a local cycling club who give up their free time to run an event for the benefit of others. Perhaps there is a place for the sport’s national governing body Cycling Ireland to run a series of ‘Classic’ races once a month from April to September.
If a large corporate sponsor could be attracted to a season-long high profile competition with a substantial prize fund stretching down to perhaps the top 40 overall - with five different jerseys presented after each event - it might capture the imagination of the riders.
It would also help counteract the current imbalance in the racing season which sees a feast of races early on and a famine from the finish of the Rás onwards.
Should the Rás be moved to later in the season? Say, to July or even mid-August?
While it may refocus the season for some, many of those ‘family’ cyclists may find it more difficult to aim for. It may also be more difficult to put in place the huge team of volunteers whose selfless work makes for such a great race at a time when many would be on holidays or attending other events.
There is also the problem of a lack of numbers in the A1 and A2 categories actually turning up at the start line of difficult races. They simply may be too few in numbers. So how do you get more A3’s and A4’s to progress through the ranks more quickly?
With over 1,000 A4’s in the country at present, it’s clear the categories are bottom heavy. There is talk of introducing an A5 category but this might just lower the standard even more. It would also put extra pressure on race organisers whose resources are often stretched to the limit already.
Around 95% of A4 races end in a bunch sprint, which is usually a pretty hair raising experience to either watch or to take part in. If a rider is slightly nervous, or a good climber but not a great sprinter, they may never score enough points to progress up to A3.
A rising tide raises all boats so a time limit of perhaps four months on being an A4 should be introduced at which time riders would be automatically upgraded to A3 with the option of even riding A1 and A2 races. This might raise the standard throughout all ranks. Some might say it may also cause more crashes, but that just means you need to be up the road ahead of the crashes.
Chris Boardman says that you set out your season by identifying your goals first then working back from those dates to today. Consistent quality dates beyond the end of May are needed for racing to flourish as much as the leisure side of cycling in Ireland is doing at present.
Just my two cents worth….
Barry
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