CityNorth is centre stage
THE 65th edition of the Ràs, currently known as the An Post 8-Day International Ràs, begins next Sunday and for the first time race headquarters will be at the CityNorth Hotel, Gormanston.
The organisers are delighted to boast about a huge entry of 190 riders and the eight-day event will cover a total distance of 1,199.8km of racing.
Teams from as far away as Australia, America, Belgium, Denmark, France and Slovenia, as well as five professional teams from Great Britain, an Irish National Team and An Post Chain Reaction Team, will start arriving at CityNorth from tomorrow - so cycling enthusiasts will have an opportunity to see at first hand these professionals at very close range.
On Saturday the 24 county teams will join these professional international teams at the hotel before setting off to travel in convoy to Dublin Castle for the ceremonial start on Sunday morning.
Among the Irish teams will be one from Louth, led by Cuchulainn CC’s Liam Dolan along with Alan Gray, John Fitzpatrick, Ray O’Shaughnessy, with the fifth rider not confirmed at the time of going to press following the withdrawal of Javan Nulty. This team will be managed by John Wall.
However, Ardee man Thomas McCabe won’t be in the team. When McCabe discovered last December that his Ardee CC was hosting the penultimate stage of the Ràs he set his mind on preparing to be a competitor and trained extremely hard throughout the winter months.
When the racing season started he put in some really good performances and prepared well for the very tough Ras Mumhan 4-day stage race over Easter weekend, but it was while competing in that race that he suffered a severe knee injury which was to rule him out of the racing season, leaving his Ràs dreams in tatters.
There will also be a Meath team included in the entries and the lineup includes Andy McGuinness, Gerard Dunne, Johnny Clarke, Stephen Byrne and Fergus Fagan, with the team being managed by Niall Doggett.
One of the very strongest county teams in this Ràs will be the Dublin UCD Fitzcycles team of Cian O’Reilly, Connor McKenna, Eoin Morton, Ian Richardson, Lucas Carnac - managed by Noel McGlynn for the third year in a row.
Dundalk man Bryan McCrystal will be riding with the Cork, Strata3/RevoRevolution team, whom he races with this season.
Arek Klus, who has been a member of Stamullen RC for the past four years, is taking part in his first Ràs and will compete with the Cork Mercedes-Benz Giant team.
Slane’s Ian Richardson (UCD Fitzcycles team), who finished as first County Rider for the past two years, suffered a knee injury in January and missed out on a lot of early-season training, and understandably his form has been somewhat under-par during the early season races.
However, he did ride extremely well in defence of his teammate Eoin Morton in the recent Tour of Ulster and feels his form is coming good again. Richardson says he will be doing everything in his power to claim that coveted Blue Jersey as first County Rider when the Ràs finishes up in Skerries on Sunday week.
Richardson’s teammate Morton is currently in the form of his life, having taken a stage win and overall victory in the recent Tour of Ulster and he also took a clear and decisive win in the Deenside GP within the last two weeks.
Great and all that it would be to see Morton repeat last year’s achievement of a stage win, he won’t have it easy this time, with massively strong opponents like World Track champion Cameron Myer from Australia. Myer has already raced at the very top level, having previously competed in the Tour de France and the Giro d’Italia and won the Tour Down Under (Australia).
A lot of the amateur cyclists would not be in favour of having to line up against a rider of this calibre, but the UCI rules allows for Myer to compete.
Come next Sunday morning the riders will all leave the CityNorth Hotel at 9am and travel in convoy in their respective team cars to Dublin Castle for the Ceremonial start. Then, the riders will depart from the castle at noon and set out on the first stage to Longford, a distance of 146.1km.
The stage will be neutralised as far as Liffey Valley on the N4, where the race proper will start at 12.30pm. The stage will take the riders through Leixlip, Maynooth and Kilcock, entering Co Meath at Summerhill (1.15), Trim (1.30), Athboy (1.50), Kilskyre (2.05), Crossakiel (2:10), Loughcrew - where there will be a category three climb (2:20) - Oldcastle (2:29), Ballyjamesduff (2:53), Ballinalee (3:46) and on to the stage finish in Longford town at 4pm. Other stages: Monday 22nd: Longford to Newport, Co Mayo (142.9km); Tuesday 23rd: Newport to Bundoran, Co Donegal (149km); Wednesday 24th: Bundoran to Buncrana, which will include five mountain climbs, crossing over the dreaded Gap of Mamore, which is the highest road peak in Ireland (151.8km); Thursday 25th: Buncrana to Dungloe (181.2km); Friday 26th: Dungloe to Donegal Town (132.1km); Saturday: Donegal to Ardee (167.3km); Sunday: Ardee to Skerries (129.4km). •On Saturday cycle racing returned to the Phoenix Park after a long absence and there was local success in the Noel O’Neill Trophy race for senior riders.
Over the last eight laps, Liam Dolan from Cuchulainn CC went clear with Dubliner Philip Lavery and blazed a trail right to the finish line, with Lavery getting the victory from Dolan.
Then on Sunday the Shay Elliott Memorial Race, promoted by Bray Wheelers CC, saw a massive field of 150 riders line up to race a total distance of 160km across the Wicklow Mountains.
After 50km a break of 17 riders detached themselves off the front of the race, among them Slane man Ian Richardson from UCD Fitzcycles, Javan Nulty from Cooperhill Julianstown (North Down CC) and Stamullen Road Club’s Cian Delaney and Arek Klus.
With 10km of racing remaining disaster struck for Klus when he got a back-wheel puncture, and Darnell Moore from Caldwell CC in Omagh jumped clear to claim victory, with Richardson and Delaney 12th and 13th respectively, on the same time as the race winner.
Earlier in the week, the McNally Swords Summer League was held and Arek Klus claimed victory for Stamullen Road Club.
The organisers are delighted to boast about a huge entry of 190 and the eight-day event will cover 1,199.8km.