THE AN POST Rás starts today with a ceremonial start at Dublin Castle to mark the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising.
After a neutralised rollout section for 16 kilometres, the flag will eventually drop in Clonee at exactly 12.30pm and the riders will race 144 kilometres to Multyfarnham, Co Westmeath.
After today, they’ll head for stage finishes on successive days in Charleville, Dingle, Sneem, Clonakilty, Dungarvan, Baltinglass and Skerries.
For the first time in several years, there will be an Irish national team in the race and that’s generated huge excitement within the cycling community at home.
The team features one of the most exciting talents the sport has produced here in years in Eddie Dunbar, while also in the line-up are talented U23 riders Chris McGlinchey, Matt Teggart, Mark Downey as well as the experienced figurehead Ronan McLaughlin.
Dunbar is one of a few Irish riders we featured this week on The42 as a man who could potentially win a stage because, in truth, that’s what the race has really lacked over the last decade.
A home race without a man to contend for stages or the general classification is a real shame as not only does it fail to capture the public’s imagination when professional riders come from abroad to obliterate the home guys but it also illustrates how far behind the other nations Ireland is.
Backing this up is the fact the country’s only UCI-registered team, the An Post Chain Reaction squad, have just two Irishmen in their squad of five.
They had the choice of adding at least one more but team management felt the riders weren’t up to the task.
Despite that, the Irish riders should contend for stages this week and Philip Lavery (LOUTH ASEA Wheelworx), Conor Dunne (JLT-Condor Cycles), Mark Dowling (LOUTH ASEA Wheelworx) and national road race champion Damien Shaw (An Post Chain Reaction) should all push close for a stage win.
It’s extremely unlikely Ireland will have a man capable of pushing for general classification, given the calibre of rider in the field, however.
Each year, the standard seems to go up and up and this year is no different with international squads coming from New Zealand and Australia.
The former have multiple national champion Hayden Roulston leading their charge and he’ll be backed up by a squad of the country’s most talented riders, some of whom will be going to the Olympics in Rio this year. Regan Gough, Dylan Kennett and Peter Bulling are just a few of the names you should hear more about this week.
Clemens Fankhauser is the only former winner of the race starting it and the 2014 champion is in the Austrian Tirol squad again.
He has taken some superb results this season already and looks like he should challenge again for the yellow jersey.
Indeed, it’s a measure of how high the level is that former winners have gone on to sign top pro contracts immediately after winning and in doing so become ineligible to race.
The NFTO squad from the UK have a former Team Sky man to help their assault on the top prize in Josh Edmondson and after finishing second last year he will be keen to go one better.
There are strong squads from Denmark, the Netherlands, France and Germany and all have riders capable of animating the race.
The race’s crucial stages will be on days three and four when the race heads to Kerry for some really challenging terrain.
Tuesday’s 133-kilometre trek from Charleville to Dingle features a category one summit finish on Conor Pass and it’s likely whoever wins that stage will take the yellow jersey.
There are four categorised climbs the following day on the 166-kilometre journey to Sneem and it’s here where the race will break to pieces. The category one climb of Ballaghisheen Pass after 87 kilometres could see a big split and those not on good form will fall out of contention by the end of today.
There are five more climbs on the next stage to Clonakilty but they’re not as difficult as those in the days before. Still, with a headwind expected all day, it could end up being one of the longest stages time-wise.
The last time the stage finished in Clonakilty (in 2014) the race split on the climb outside Glengarriff and a small group of eventual contenders rode away and put huge time into the bunch.
Only one Irishman, Sean Downey, managed to make that break and he would finish 6th overall.
Of the 180 riders in the field, 100 are county riders, or full-time working men. That’s what makes the An Post Rás so unique as competing this week are ex-Olympic medallists, national champions, Grand Tour stage winners, full-time rider and professionals.
You can follow the race with live updates on Twitter this week with the hashtag #anpostras or on the race’s official website.
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