CX World Cup round for Dublin in December

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121426397#Comment_121426397

The earlier races are great for strolling around and checking out the course. Watch the pit action or sand pit for a while.

It's a pity Blanchardstown is such a slog to get to. Took me an extra hour in buses after getting off the train.

beggars_bush

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121426443#Comment_121426443

Still think the Phoenix Park is the place to have it

retalivity

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121426616#Comment_121426616

Make them ride through a deer pen during rutting season

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121426616#Comment_121426616

That would certainly suit me.

SIC probably comes cheap or free though and not many places would agree to the damage to the park.

The real pity is that like so much in Ireland Blanchardstown and the campus were built so far from any sort of rail transport.

gmacww

I wonder if it was a bigger branded Guinness stand would anyone have complained? Probably not. People are gas. I've seen this so many times at different events over the years where bars are sponsored and not just in Ireland. Ah it was terrible last year you couldn't even get a beer. This year beer available but...

Budweiser/Heineken/Coors/Carlsberg - Ah they were only selling that piss

Rockshore - They seemed to be only selling that Rockshore piss (despite Guinness being available as well but shhhh)

Some guy at a local event outside of Dublin. They were selling a local craft it's actually cows piss filtered through a jock strap, Hoppenheimer 1945 it was amazing. The rest of the crowd "jaysus that's piss lads"

I was at a cross race in Germany (used to live there) with some Irish mates and the bars were all Zipfer. The Irish lads "ah a savage local beer". The germans "only selling that piss are they!"

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121427152#Comment_121427152

You get that with Jupiler in Belgium too 🤣

A lot of people don't really know about portfolios in the beer industry so won't understand that a Rockshore tent also means Guinness or you will probably have to "put up with" Murphy's at a Heineken sponsored event.

Pity Guinness don't sell their Belgian style "Special Export" in Ireland.

Tenzor07

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121426616#Comment_121426616

Just like the Beer thing you'll have fellas coming on here telling you how great the Sports campus is and how the Phoenix park is too far away for them....

Apart from that, the Phoenix park will host massive Pop concerts, Festivals, religious events etc. whereas "cyclists would just cause too much damage"....

There's some video's of the national CX Champs in 1986 floating around YouTube, and sponsored by Guinness! Great to see in almost 40 years that we've come so far in that regard!

breezy1985

I'm actually pretty annoyed with myself that I only realised when on the bus to Blanchardstown that a large chunk of the cycle from Heuston to SIC is through Phoenix Park.

Definitely bringing the bike next year.

LeoD

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121423380#Comment_121423380

I didn't realise there was a race on in Belgium on Sat until I read that news article - I'd heard various comments from riders about the previous day's race and thought they must have done something around the Dublin course (I watched the race back when I got home and I wasn't aware that when they were discussing the guy that bust his shoulder on Sat that it happened in Belgium)! I'm not a CX fan but brought my 11 year old up from Limerick for it, initially in the hope we'd see some of the road stars but we weren't too bothered by that - it was just cool to be able to get up close to elite level riders so we enjoyed the day. Organising 2 races in 24hrs is bad enough but the hassle of having to travel through pirate island to get to Dublin sounds like an incredible pain in the arse. From walking through the team area, it's clear this is not a big money sport and the team support structures are minimal for most so unless participants get a lot more assistance from UCI/organisers/CX federations(?), it would be hard to see the event growing - despite the glowing reviews of the race setup once they got here which is at least something to build on.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121427593#Comment_121427593

Have you ever been out to Greenmount with the young fella. People out there doing amazing work in CX for kids.

Paddigol

"Pirate Island" 🤣

LeoD

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121427598#Comment_121427598

We went out once for a look but he said he's prefer to go on the road with me so we've done that a few times instead. I'm not sure what I think of Greenmount.

beggars_bush

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121426721#Comment_121426721

Imagine the highlights reel!

this.lad

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121427248#Comment_121427248

At least it's not Beamish

DonegalBay

So I have a listen to the Maghalie Rochette podcast Fever Talk(Canadian racer who finished 7th in ladies race) every week whilst she is in Europe, so was interested to hear what she had to say about the Dublin event.

The good news is she and her husband were full of praise for the event on Sunday. They said organisation was really well done and fans were super enthusiastic and positive, moreso than in Belgium. They explained that many events in Belgium are based around the course and very often, little thought is put into facilities like parking, sometimes they have to park far from the course. Likewise there is sometimes very little changing facilities/showers or other amenities at the events. In Dublin all those things were right next to the course which made life so much easier for the riders/teams and back-up. The convenience of being close to the airport was also mentioned.

On the fans side, they suggested the fans were more positive as we are just so happy to have a WC race, we really get into it more. They did highlight the issues that events like this need to have the fans coming to ensure the event survives as organisers can put on a race in Belgium anywhere and get a big crowd. Dublin was a great event and well organised, but unless the crowds come, it will be hard to survive as promoters will always look at the bottom line.

andyd12

I didn't attend this year but did last year.

Tbh, the food and drink facilities were very poor last year. It is frustrating standing in line for half an hour for tea and a sandwich.

Van aert, Pidcock, Pieterse, Van Empel not being there is a factor.

The event is poorly advertised.

The scene is very small in Ireland compared to mainland Europe, particularly CX. I attended the Giro d'italia this year and it's pretty amazing to see the level of interest on the continent

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121435005#Comment_121435005

Ah stop. On what planet is the Giro comparable to CX.

Weepsie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121429578#Comment_121429578

Beamish is a fine drink.

Paddigol

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121435005#Comment_121435005

The food and drink offering was immeasurably better this year. No comparison. That said, I did worry that the poor offering last year would put off a lot of fence-sitters who did go in 2022 from coming back this year. Which ties in with your point about lack of marketing - aside from the hype, unless you were following specific social media accounts (in which case you were probably already definitely going anyway) you'd never have known that the food and drink options were much better.

In fairness, CX is a small event, almost always away from densely populated areas, and has an entrance fee so you'll never get the bandwagon following that the Giro, TDF and Vuelta (or any big road race) gets. When the Giro was in Ireland we had huge numbers coming out for that too.

I think there's a market here for one big CX event a year. Plenty of active cycling fans in the country. The problem is that we are very passive as a nation when it comes to getting involved in the hype and selling a product. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it doesn't help when trying to promote and event.

On the big names - if you know the likes of Pieterse and Van Empel, you're a CX fan. And if you're a CX fan you're unlikely to pass up the chance to see the elite of world CX live in Ireland just because a few of the big names are missing. It's not like paying €70 to see Liverpool's youth team play Bohs in a preseason friendly.

andyd12

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121435024#Comment_121435024

Relax will you. I am not comparing giro vs cx, just an observation and an eye opener on the market in mainland europe

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121438973#Comment_121438973

If we had the Giro here again there would be a vastly different crowd to what was at the CX.

You can't use the Giro to show how "small the scene in Ireland is". The Giro is an international event with fans from all over the world. It's not an accurate barometer of Italian or even European cycling.

Paddigol

Loads of big names missing from the World Cup round in Italy yesterday. Especially from the women's side. Also, despite Wout being back, he didn't bother making the trip. Strangely enough, there was also a very light field for the race in Belgium on Saturday in both men's and women's. So it's very much not an Ireland-specific problem, but a scheduling one. Crowds in Dublin seemed a lot better than yesterday too.

gmacww

"Crowds in Dublin seemed a lot better than yesterday too."

They did but to be fair. Yesterday was in val di sole in snow and about -5. Hard to draw a crowd anywhere for that. Pre race the riders were saying their pedals were freezing solid after washing the bikes. Agree with folk though. Crowds not terrific the past few weeks certainly seems a lot of scheduling problems.

Tenzor07

Val Di Sol course is in the middle of no-where really, even from Milan/Bergamo airport it's a solid 2.5 hour drive.. and there's more people in Blanchardstown alone than in any of the nearby italian towns and villages combined so makes sense that there'd be more fans at the race in Dublin?

ednwireland

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121482647#Comment_121482647

I think the point is that there are world cup cx races which are not as well attended as the irish one hence might not be a reason to stop it ?

obviously we all think of the big belgian/dutch cx races being mobbed with fans.

Paddigol

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121482666#Comment_121482666

Yeah, that's more what I was getting at. I'm not arguing for any particular agenda, just trying to add a bit of perspective to some of the more downbeat summaries of the Dublin CX round.

Tenzor07

Well, just looks like more of an issue for the CX section of the UCI, attendances are low everywhere outside of the Netherlands and Belgium where most/all the riders are from too...

JMcL

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121482229#Comment_121482229

I did a back of a beermat caculation a page or so ago and it's still the guts of a day's journey from Belgium to Val di Sole and similar for the Spanish leg, so very definitely a scheduling issue for the teams. Whatever about the likes of JV, you'd have to believe it's a major headache for the smaller teams

Paddigol

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121483110#Comment_121483110

Yeah, and I think the point they've been trying to make is that if the UCI want to push the World Cup competition then more thought needs to go into a) when the races outside of BeNeLux are being held (i.e. - schedule them so that you can at least get a couple of races in together - say Ireland and then France/ UK) and when the races are being scheduled generally (i.e. - they have to allow riders enough recovery time to avoid them simply skipping races).

Again the problem comes down to 1) not enough thought going into how the races are scheduled and b) none of the race organisers being willing to make any sacrifices at their end. I think that if the Superprestige organisers and Flanders Classics actually just sat down and had adult conversations alongside the teams, a solution could easily be found.

gmacww

What we shouldn't forget here is that the riders and teams love Dublin. It's only our 2nd year but feedback is hugely positive in terms of the overall package. The fact that it's close to the airport and everything is onsite. Access roads in and out are great. Parking area for teams right beside the course, support, access to water and electricity etc... Most CX races on the continent don't have all of that. Often the team support area is away from the course and as others have said access to the towns themselves can at times be a challenge.

If the UCI want to grow CX then Dublin is a blueprint of what an event should be. London are looking to get one. Do both over 2 legs on separate weekends with no other events on that weekend. I know that's hard as the super prestige, world cup and x series don't really talk.