Cycling Ireland has urged clubs who promote road races to consider changing how they group different categories of senior riders into the same events, adding A1 riders could be catered for just as well with fewer races for them on the same day.
The national governing body's 'road grading working group' - with the approval of the 'Cycling Ireland technical working group' - has also decided to offer an upgrading amnesty to A4 riders. This means those A4s that have previously held a racing licence will be free to upgrade to A3 for this season. But the offer only applies to 2023 and is not an ongoing, long-term, arrangement.
With the Irish road racing season now just one month away, the national governing body has said the way races are usually organised - with A1s and A2s in the same events and other races for A3s, A4s and juniors - could be reconsidered so the same categories were not always grouped together to race against each other.
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It has based its appeal on the results of a survey, which suggests A2 senior riders specifically could be better catered for rather than almost always being in the same events as A1s and often finding themselves dropped - due to the higher standard of the A1 riders.
"Feedback from a recent grading survey has shown that A2 is a category which has been neglected in recent years and one in which there is a lot of interest," Cycling Ireland said in a statement issued about the new 'road grading working group' changes and recommendations for the coming road racing season
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"We feel that a lot of riders will be interested in racing A2 only races, rather than being put out the back of an A1 race in the first lap. We hope that promoters consider hosting A2 or A2-A3 only races to encourage greater participation in these categories, as opposed to an A1-A2 race.
"Also if there are other A1 races on the same day in the country perhaps one of the promoters will consider changing their headline race to A2. All of this will need a big push from Cycling Ireland and the racing community to make it happen. We encourage race promoters to explore the possibility of hosting races between two clubs over a weekend. For example, one club hosts youth races, women’s race and A4 race on Saturday while the other club hosts separate A1, A2 and A3 races on the Sunday."
On the issue of the amnesty upgrades for A4s interested in moving up to A3, the statement issued by Cycling Ireland makes it clear riders can upgrade "provided they have previously held a full competition racing licence" before this year.
"The reasoning around this is that we have numerous experienced A4 riders who have been in that category for years," the road grading group states. "Feedback has shown that some of them would like to upgrade and test themselves at a higher level, they have struggled to get up in sprints but are well able to handle themselves safely in bunches.
"The group thinks this may help to swell numbers in the A3 bunch and keep the A4 category as more of an introductory category," the statement on regrading states, adding any A4 who wants to upgrade should make their requests to [email protected].
