In what will come as a major disappointment to many of Ireland’s top professional cyclists FBD Insurance RÁS organiser, Dermot Dignam, has announced a total ban on mixed team teams involving professional and domestic riders. It will be recalled that last year top pro and former RÁS winner, Ciaran Power, competed on a special representative Dan Morrissey Eireann team, which also included Tipperary county riders.
It is believed a number of our top pros, particularly those racing in the United States, planned to initiate similar teams this year but Dignam’s decision scuppers any such intentions.
Explaining his decision Dignam said “last year due to a perceived ambiguity in the world controlling body, Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), regulations we were able to facilitate the Eireann team but according to a closer reading of the regulations by Cycling Ireland commissaires (referees) there is absolutely no wriggle room whatsoever within the UCI to allow for such teams” Dignam states “it is better for all concerned that the situation is clarified at this early stage, just imagine riders travelling from the US, and elsewhere, only to be told on Sunday 20th May, the morning the race starts, by the UCI representative that their team is ineligible - doesn’t bear thinking about”
The eight day international race starts from Naas and takes in stage finishes in Templemore, Loughrea, Sligo, Dungloe, Buncrana, Derry, Newcastle (County Down) before finishing in Skerries on Sunday 27th May.
