The organisers of Dornan Rás Mumhan ran a fantastic race this weekend, put on by a well-drilled and professional team, at a time when some other races are under pressure (Photo: Caroline Kerley)
The great news for Rás Mumhan was that it went ahead this weekend with a strong, sizeable, field and a sponsor, in Dornan, that looks really solid. It’s a fantastic race that has transitioned to new management, and a new backer, in recent years.
Overall, though, comparing the number of riders racing in Ireland this Easter with previous years is a worry. The slide has continued for the past 12 months. The state of affairs – even in 2019, though the cracks were already appearing – was so markedly different it’s hard to take in. And when we compare the current situation with 2015 and 2016, it’s hard to comprehend what is happening in Irish cycling right now.
A decade ago – Easter weekend 2015 and 2016 – there were three stage races and a one-day promotion featuring several races, all happening at the same time.
So let’s drill down into the numbers.
In 2019, there were 160 finishers on stage 1 at Gorey Three Day. There were 103 finishers on the opening stage at Tour of the North, and 149 finishing the Rás Mumhan opener.
That made for a total of 412 riders finishing the opening stages of those three races in 2019. A few more started the stages and didn’t finish, while others were entered but didn’t start. But let’s stick with a solid comparison – the number of finishers on the opening stages of these events.
This year at Rás Mumhan, there were 130 finishers on the opening road stage – down from 157 last year. It means the number of riders in stage race action this Easter was down by more than two thirds compared to 2019 (130 this year Vs 412 in 2019). But the situation is slightly worse than that.
Incredibly, though there were three Easter stage races being promoted in 2019, there was also a one-day promotion on Easter Sunday. Rás an Laois was run by Ossory Cycling Club, and there were three races on the day – one for A1-A2 riders, one for A3s and one for A4s.
We don’t have start lists for the three races at the one-day Rás an Laois 2019. But the riders in those three races would have brought the total number of riders racing during Easter weekend 2019 in Ireland to well above 500.
For example, if there was an average of even 30-35 riders in each of the three races at Rás an Laois on Easter Sunday 2019, then the total number of riders racing in Ireland that weekend was about 520 riders. Based on photographs of that event in 2019, the fields were at least that size.
And that means the number of riders racing in Ireland this weekend was about 75 per cent down on 2019.
How we came up with those numbers
In summary, the number of finishers on the opening stages of the Easter stage races in 2019 Vs 2026 (when Rás Mumhan was the only race on) shows a drop in numbers of just over two thirds. And adding the loss of the one-day Easter Sunday race since 2019 brings the decline up to about 75 per cent.
We’ve picked 2019 for comparative purposes because that was the last year before the pandemic – the period that forced races to be cancelled, and generally decimated road racing, with the recovery yet to start.
In truth, by 2019, the decline in racing numbers was already well underway. Just three years earlier – 2016 – there were 180 finishers on the opening stage at Rás Mumhan (compared to 149 in 2019).
That 180-finishers number from 2019 was almost one third more than this year, despite the fact Rás Mumhan had no competition this year, with no Gorey being promoted, Tour of the North long gone and no one-day race promotion on Easter Sunday.
If we go back a little further, to 2015, the Gorey Three Day had 200 entries, up 30 on the previous year, even though there were two other stage races being run that weekend.
Furthermore, the one-day Rás Chonamara was also run on Easter Sunday, 2015. Rás Chonamara was the fifth round of the Cycling Ireland National Road Series that year, with two races run there that day.
It is, literally, hard to imagine now that any club – or Cycling Ireland – would have the confidence to run a round of the National Series on the same day three of the biggest stage races in the country were underway. What’s more, all of those races in 2015 got fields we can only look back on with envy now.
Rás Mumhan looks steady. It will be back next year. It’s hard to see the Tour of the North coming back, but hopefully it can. However, the Gorey Three Day simply must be rescued – spearheaded by Cycling Ireland – and that rescue effort needs to start now.