Could Ireland host the Worlds???

jimm

Interesting article here: http://www.stickybottle.com/latest-news/opinion-is-it-time-for-ireland-to-stage-the-uci-world-road-race-championships/

A major investment in road re-surfacing would be required wherever we might plan to hold it. Love to see it happen though.

feck sake lads

jimm wrote: »

Interesting article here: http://www.stickybottle.com/latest-news/opinion-is-it-time-for-ireland-to-stage-the-uci-world-road-race-championships/

A major investment in road re-surfacing would be required wherever we might plan to hold it. Love to see it happen though.

job for macadam best tarmac contractor in the country:cool:

Morrisseeee

jimm wrote: »

A major investment in road re-surfacing would be required wherever we might plan to hold it. .

Yes yes, the roads around where I live are 'perfect'

Seriously tho, it would be a great idea, either that or a yearly 'classic'.

Miklos

That would be amazing. Nice article, must keep track of that blog.

cycletheroad

Their were a strong possibility it was going to happen in the early noughties but what happened at the 1998 tour which came here as we know, put the kebosh on it. It was Killarney most likely that it would have been held. Plus the large amount of hotels there would have catered for the event. But I think it should be held here, sooner rather then later.

SomeFool

Morrisseeee wrote: »

Yes yes, the roads around where I live are 'perfect'

Seriously tho, it would be a great idea, either that or a yearly 'classic'.

Potholes could be the new cobbles! You do have a point though, no reason why Ireland shouldn't host a decent calssic.

morana

yes its possible as is other big events being hosted here

mcgratheoin

That'd be brilliant. I'd love to see them in Sean Kelly country - you could have the time trials on the old Nissan Classic stage from Carrick to Clonmel and then the road races finishing in Waterford city - the quay is perfect for a bunch finish and there's enough terrain in the area to give a breakaway a chance to stay out there.

Anywhere in the country would be brilliant though - especially if you ran a few sportives in association with it for all the visitors.

morana

mcgratheoin wrote: »

That'd be brilliant. I'd love to see them in Sean Kelly country - you could have the time trials on the old Nissan Classic stage from Carrick to Clonmel and then the road races finishing in Waterford city - the quay is perfect for a bunch finish and there's enough terrain in the area to give a breakaway a chance to stay out there.

Anywhere in the country would be brilliant though - especially if you ran a few sportives in association with it for all the visitors.

A barrier in the past has being the fact the UCI congress took place at the same time which meant the UCI would need a hotel of the standard of the 4 seasons (5* ) for all the worldwide delegates. This requirement is gone now so the pressure to have such a facility is no longer a prerequisite and therefore it should be able to take place in the likes of Kelly country.

stevemac

what happened at the 98 tour?

edit: festina affair?

i'd thought that you meant we had done something wrong that meant the uci wouldn't bring it back, but it was probable this ruining the public perception and support for something like that here?

ROK ON

morana wrote: »

A barrier in the past has being the fact the UCI congress took place at the same time which meant the UCI would need a hotel of the standard of the 4 seasons (5* ) for all the worldwide delegates. This requirement is gone now so the pressure to have such a facility is no longer a prerequisite and therefore it should be able to take place in the likes of Kelly country.

That part of Ireland, while beautiful simply does not have the infrastructure to host a large World Championship type event.
Its not only 5* hotels that are needed. That part of the world can barely handle the influx of people that come down every August for the Sean Kelly Tour of Waterford, so forget about holding a Worlds there.

You need an airport, trains, hotels that are capable of catering for all the teams, pr/media, sponsors, supporterers, hangers on, alickado's etc.
Then you need restaurants, bars etc etc.

The reality is that if the Worlds are to be held in Ireland it will need to be close to Dublin, Killarney, Cork or Galway. Any other location simily will not be capable of dealing with the entire weeks events, both on course and off course so to speak.

I would love to see it in Killarney, as the riders would probably end up training on my local roads but that is a by the by.

morana

stevemac wrote: »

what happened at the 98 tour?

edit: festina affair?

i'd thought that you meant we had done something wrong that meant the uci wouldn't bring it back, but it was probable this ruining the public perception and support for something like that here?

I am sorry I dont understand. My recollection of 98 was that the Government said they wouldnt invest money in international cycling events because of what happened. We did nothing wrong.

stevemac

yeah thats what I was saying.
I wasn't following cycling then and when I saw the post my first thought was that we had done something, but when I googled it and saw the festina affair was that year I edited the post to say that it was the festina affair.

kumate_champ07

Aren't England setting up a new classic?