Rás Tailteann made a welcome return to the domestic road racing season this year and when Irish riders won four of the five stages, and the overall, it proved an ever bigger boost for the home scene. Planning for next year's Rás is already well underway, with the race set to be held earlier in the year and to include more climbing.
Race director, Ger Campbell, said bringing the race forward to earlier in the year meant taking it out of the tourism high season window, when hotel beds were at a premium, in terms of both cost and availability.
This year the event was held from June 15th to 19th. But with international travel returning to more regular patterns post-pandemic - and with an increase in asylum seekers and Ukrainians fleeing the war now putting pressure on the hotel sector - running the event in the summer months next year would be much more challenging.
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Race director Campbell and his team have decided to switch it back to May, with the race set to run from the 17th to the 21st of that month. While the Drogheda Wheelers man was remaining tight-lipped around the race route, he said the event would visit all four provinces, adding there would be more climbing this time around.
"We'll have at least one stage in every province, which is hard enough to do in five days, and more climbing. This year we have something like seven categorised climbs and next year we'll have 13 or 14," he confirmed.
"Moving in back to May is basically a return to where it was before in the calendar," he said. "And that's mainly down to the cost and availability of accommodation. We went to one hotel and gave a date for a Thursday in June and a Thursday in May and they had no beds at all for June but 180 beds for May.
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"It has basically been similar for other places the race will visit next year. So by moving it back to May the hotel beds will be available and they'll be cheaper. So that will save us money and it will also save the teams money."
Campbell added one of the ideas behind holding the race in June this year was the hope a later date would prolong the season. However, the road racing campaign still went the same way as usual, with fields getting small as the summer progressed.
"Aside from the date changing for next year, it will be the same format; five stages, no UCI-ranking but still with an international component. We've actually already had a lot of queries from foreign teams for next year already.
"We've been working on the route and that's well advanced. So the big issue now is the financial backing. We got assistance from Cycling Ireland this year which was over and above what the race would normally get. But that was on the understanding it would be for one year," he said of the event needing a financial boost in its comeback year.
"Obviously getting the financial backing in place is challenging, but that's our problem and we are working away on that. We'll also apply to the new Cycling Ireland fund for race promoters and we should know about that by around Christmas. There will be a bigger shortfall to make up for next year and that is the main thing we are working."
Rás Tailteann lost An Post as a sponsor after the 2017 edition. It went ahead again as an eight-day UCI-ranked race in 2018, using cash reserves. But when no sponsor could be found for 2019 the event was cancelled for the first time in its history.
A new group then took temporary charge of organising the race, in the new shorter format and without UCI ranking. However, the pandemic halted their plans for both 2020 and 2021 before the race went ahead this season. It was won overall by Daire Feeley (All human-VeloRevolution). Four Irish riders won stages; Matt Teggart (Cycling Ulster), Rory Townsend (Team Ireland), Adam Ward (Team Ireland) and Kevin McCambridge (Trinity Racing).
