Mark Dowling hot favourite for hillier, longer Shay Elliott Classic
Mark Dowling will be looking for another big win on Sunday at the Shay Elliott Classic.
By Brian Canty
The course for the 60th running of the Shay Elliott Memorial has been changed from previous year’s.
Organisers Bray Wheelers have gone for a longer and harder parcours to editions.
John Spain, one of the driving forces behind this Sunday’s race, opted to change the route for two reasons; practical and racing.
An Garda Síochána asked him to make some route changes due to the dangers with traffic in and around the village of Laragh.
But the club also wants to give A1 riders the best chance of preparing for the An Post Rás which starts a week on Sunday.
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“We’ve extended the distance of the main race and the A3 race so the Shay 3 is 95km and the Elliott is now 165km,” he said.
“We wanted to make the route harder and from a safety point of view, going through Laragh Village on a Sunday is a nightmare.
"There are tour busses and everything so the Gardai asked us to come up with a route change to bypass that.
“When the riders come down the Elliott (Glenmalure) and they take a left off the Laragh road; they go over the little bridge they’re taking a right and straight up the Laragh climb.
"So there’s an extra climb and then they’ll come back around and finish up on top of Djouce.”
With upwards of 2,000 metres of elevation, the race will rival the Visit Nenagh Classic for hardship.
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And that’s what Bray Wheelers and Spain want.
“For the elite riders in Ireland there aren’t enough hard races,” he continued.
“If you look at certain races they’ve made their events easier and I can understand why; it’s to attract a larger field.
"But it’s not doing the leading riders any good when they’re trying to prepare for the Rás.
“Our view is make it harder and other races should be trying to do the same.”
Most of the big names and teams in the country are travelling to Bray with Aqua Blue Academy, UCD-Fitzcycles.ie and Strata3-VeloRevolution all sending strong teams.
Spain reckons a rider like Mark Dowling (Strata3-VeloRevolution) could be the man to watch.
“They’ll start attacking on the N11 straight away," he said.
"It’ll be interesting to see if there will be a headwind or tailwind. But on the Elliott climb it will break up.
"And then if there’s any group left the natural inclination would be attack on the Laragh climb.
“If it’s all still together there it’s made for Dowling to attack.”
The promoting club are lucky to have good sponsors onboard again in New Ireland Assurances.
The race also received a massive fillip with the news it’ll be aired on three TV channels.
Eir Sport, TG4 and Bike Channel will all show a highlights package of it.
The first of those will be broadcast on Wednesday 24th May at 9.30pm on Eir Sport.
Sign on for both the A1-A2 race (164km - 11am) as well as Junior-A3 races (95k - 11.05am) this weekend will be in the clubhouse on Schools Road, Bray from 8.30am with racing off at 11am.
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