As the Irish cyclocross season draws to a close, a decision looms on whether the most important cyclocross race ever held on these shores - the Dublin round of the UCI World Cup - could return here, maybe even return regularly. Stickybottle's Shane Stokes speaks to Sport Ireland chief executive, Dr Una May, about her verdict on the inaugural event, the factors that need weighing up in the current analysis and what the future may hold. She says event legacy and financial considerations - especially after a period of unrest and financial pressure of Cycling Ireland - must all be weighed up. Sport Ireland must also consider its responsibility in the wider Irish sporting landscape, not cycling alone.
All the feedback was positive after the Dublin round of the UCI Cyclocross World Cup last month. The riders praised the course and the spectators. Sport Ireland and Cycling Ireland were glowing about the turnout and the racing, and the World Cup organisers, Flanders Classics, were upbeat about the first ever round held in this country.
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“This first Dublin round was an absolute success,” said Flanders Classics chief executive Tomas Van Den Spiegel hours after the race. “Those 8,000 fans enjoying the first UCI Cyclocross World Cup on Irish soil turned the Sport Ireland Campus into a fantastic winter cycling event. We hope everyone loved this as much as we did, and we are happy to look at the possibility of coming back here next season.”
Since December 11th the exposed mud of the course has started to grass over again. The questions about whether or not the race will reoccur this year are also growing. It’s just over a month on, so where are things at right now?
Dr Una May is the chief executive of Sport Ireland, holding the position since her appointment in January 2022. She has been heavily involved in Irish sport for decades, and has more than a passing link to cycling.
“My daughter took part in the elite race,” she told stickybottle of the Dublin World Cup, referring to Caoimhe May. “And then my son did that the under 16. Cyclocross certainly features in our house and has done over the years.”
Indeed May was in attendance at the National Cyclocross Championships two weeks ago, presenting medals to some of the podium finishers and cheering her daughter on to eighth in the women’s event.
Having someone in May’s position interested and involved in the sport on a personal level is a plus for Cycling Ireland. It doesn’t guarantee Sport Ireland will bid for the World Cup again, or will back other ventures related to cycling, but will certainly not harm those chances.
Given that cycling was regarded for so many years within Ireland as almost a Cinderella sport, it is refreshing and encouraging to have someone in such a prominent position with a clear understanding of what it is all about.
So what was her view about the World Cup?
“Look, all the feedback was excellent,” she told stickybottle. “The feedback from Flanders Classics was good. The feedback from the public was good. The feedback from the UCI was good. It was very positive.
“I think everyone had a good experience. It went well. It looked well. They had significantly more spectators than they would normally expect when they go outside of Belgium, and they were pleasantly surprised by that.
“The Flanders Classics guys were surprised with how successful the support races were, because it’s not a model they often do engage. So they were very pleased to see that, they felt that that was something that they’d consider in the future. So, altogether, the reaction was very positive.”
Weighing things up
As mentioned, it’s now over a month after those races. We are into a new year, with the 2023 cross calendar being planned and finalised. So what happens next?
Sport Ireland is completing a detailed analysis of the World Cup event, with the outcome of this review then determining the path forward.
“From Sports Ireland’s point of view and the campus point of view, it was a success,” May explained to stickybottle. “But we want to make sure that if we were to consider it again that the success is not just about Sport Ireland. Fáilte Ireland are talking to us about potential. It was all very short notice this year. We’d like to engage more closely with Fáilte Ireland, and look at possibilities around partnering on various things. So we’ll look at some sort of an economic impact review of the event.”
Understandably, May didn’t go into the financial details behind the running of the race. She did say that the event was run due to an agreement between Sport Ireland and Flanders Classics, with Cycling Ireland providing an unspecified form of support. She also stated that Flanders Classics "invested heavily in the event". The precise breakdown of costs was not given.
A clear strength for Dublin as a venue was the Sport Ireland campus itself. It is close to the airport and offers plenty of room for a cyclocross course.
“I know that Flanders Classics were attracted because they knew we had a facility,” May explained. “And there’s a lot of added value with the facility we have. While we have the 500 acres, with big parks and lots of places (that the course can be situated in – ed), the built infrastructure was very important because we were able to host media centres, doping control stations, warm-up areas.
“The riders were very happy with the experience. They felt the course was good, and they felt they’d been well looked after. They enjoyed the possibility of warming up in indoors in the warmth, having warm showers and all that. And there was a lot of other things we were able to host by having all that infrastructure. Volunteer centres, parking for campers, every sort of thing.”
All that considered, it is little wonder that the early reactions were positive. But where are things at now with those Belgian organisers?
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That initial reaction from Flanders Classics CEO Tomas Van Den Spiegel was a glowing one, particularly his declaration on December 11th that the organisation is "happy to look at the possibility of coming back here next season".
Stickybottle has reached out to him since then to seek precise clarification of where things are at, but he is yet to reply. However, if a decision is made to run the race again, May believes the experience already gained, plus a longer lead-in time, should help in terms of the financials.
“I think if we had more lead-in time we’d be in a strong position,” she said. “And because we’ve demonstrated the potential of the event, it’s quite marketable for sponsors. But the very short lead-in time meant that it was very, very difficult to get sponsor involvement this time around. However now that we have demonstrated you can attract that many people to an event of this kind, it certainly makes it a lot more straightforward in the future to attract sponsors. So that’s very positive.
“It was kind of a win-win. We did support Flanders Classics in providing the event. But the win for us is that we were able to showcase an event for this kind to a public who, apart from the cycling community, had no idea of what it was.”
A question of legacy
One of the big considerations that will be made as part of the review is to determine what benefit running another World Cup event would have for the sport in this country. Would the gains justify the effort?
“The cycling community enjoyed it enormously, as I think you know,” May explained. “But Cycling Ireland have had a difficult year. So we need to be confident.
“To be fair to them, if someone had said to them ‘will you organise the World Cup?’ given the conditions that their organisation was in, they probably wouldn’t have accepted it. So we couldn’t really have expected them to be able to get a huge legacy from it. But I do believe there is a significant legacy. I mean, I’ve heard a lot of people saying how their children were very impressed. And people who’ve never seen it before were enthused by it. So those are the kind of successes that we hope to achieve.
“Obviously if Cycling Ireland was in a strong position to benefit from it, you’d feel more comfortable about the investment in an event of this size. I think they will do in the future, there’s a huge goodwill towards the these kind of events and cyclocross is growing. And it is it is very popular. But we just need to be sure that we don’t burden anybody by bringing an event and expecting an outcome that’s unrealistic in the circumstances. So we have to work on that.”
Cycling Ireland will itself have an important role to play, needing to show Sport Ireland and others that there would indeed be a benefit to having the World Cup take place here again and that it could capitalise on the opportunity.
Cycling Ireland’s Interim operations manager, Scott Graham, hailed the success of the first race and indicated an appetite for it to be an ongoing fixture. He told stickybottle “it would be fantastic to see it become a regular of the World Cup circuit”.
Still, the finer details would need to be hammered out if a bid were to be made.
One organisation, many parents
There is one further consideration for Sport Ireland: where to direct its resources. Even if it is found that running the World Cup again has strong economic and sporting argument, there is another element that the authority will need to consider. It is, of course, not only focussed on cycling. It has a role overseeing and partly funding the development of multiple sports across Ireland, and will need to bear this in mind.
May told stickybottle that the whole area concerning the running of events is being evaluated at present.
“The government is developing a major events policy for Ireland,” she explained. “We’re saying we need to develop a medium sized policy around how much we would invest in various events, and how much we lead and encourage and support on the development of these kinds of events.
“We foresee the campus being well placed to host events. But there is a limit to how many you could do in any one year. They are costly. We’ve already got a European U23 Swimming Championship taking place in the Aquatic Centre. And we have European qualifier hockey matches taking place as well.
“I’d like to see us do a big outdoor event, maybe at least once every two years, if not once a year. It’s proven to be quite successful and it’s good to scope out the full potential of the campus, not just the built facilities, but the huge 500 acres we have, to ensure that we maximise the use of the full campus.
“Each year we look at what is there. It’s relatively new and we will develop a policy around it. The policy would look at whether we would be the driving force and the extent to which we’d fund and resource these kinds of events, and the model of delivery.
"The Sport Ireland campus team has developed a lot of expertise now, in hosting the events and running them themselves. So we just need to look at different models. There’s a lot of learnings to be had, across a lot of different areas. Not just cyclocross, but just events in general.”
Long story short, there are multiple factors that Sport Ireland will need to consider in this month’s review. Some are financial considerations and the possible sponsorship gains. Some relate to how valuable a repeat running of the World Cup would be, in terms of legacy. And some relate to the broader objectives of the organisation and the many other sports it must cater for too.
But, notwithstanding all that, is it fair to say that if Flanders Classics is up for talking about a possible repeat that Sport Ireland will have that chat?
“We will certainly have the conversation,” May answered. “We were very happy with the event. It was a very successful event. And you know, all things taken into consideration, we would be very enthusiastic to do something similar again in the future.
“But we just have to take into consideration all the different elements to it. As I mentioned, there is a lot to it.”
