CX World Cup round for Dublin in December

Paddigol

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121483647#Comment_121483647

A suggestion I heard on a Dutch/ Belgian CX podcast is - along the lines of what you're suggesting - have say Dublin on a Saturday and London on Sunday - a double World Cup header. Even have one midweek was suggested (although inevitably that would see crowds take a hit). But yeah, there are lots of avenues to explore which could make it work, just needs the will and a bit of leadership. Doubtless, if we're talking about it here on an Irish cycling forum it's been discussed in depth and at length in Belgium!

JMcL

I think there's huge potential to grow CX here. Having seen several grand tour stages, stuff like the Nissan Classic and the city centre crits they held here back in the day (showing my age now), I have to say that the WC event last year (couldn't make this years unfortunately) was brilliant from a spectator perspective.

From the teams perspective, the SI campus has all the aforementioned plus points. If the race were to get live coverage here on terrestrial TV the exposure would do wonders for the sport I reckon - short, sharp, fast paced races with plenty of variety compared to what I imagine a lot of peoples image of cycling is of aerial shots of nice countryside going by for 4 hours with about 2 minutes of mayhem at the end

Paddigol

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121486296#Comment_121486296

Speaking of the SI campus, would be great if they ran a few races throughout the season/ made it available for regional clubs to use/ host league races. They'd probably have to modify it slightly where the course encroaches on general use of the campus, but shouldn't be that hard. Would also help to bed the course in before the WC round - there was a lot of tough/ long grass still there on the Saturday for example.

cletus

Confirmation of a return this December, as well as protected status, so no conflicting events scheduled that weekend

https://www.rte.ie/sport/cycling/2024/0429/1446277-cyclo-cross-returning-to-dublin-in-december/

Paddigol

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122078980#Comment_122078980

Will be interesting to see if they manage to improve things for a second year running… 2023 was much, MUCH better than 2022 (bar the lack of the biggest names). 2024 could be amazing

JMcL

And I can go this year \o/ (as parent of a daughter at the pointy end of Irish dance, the last week of November always has a major championship requiring cheerleading - plus a weekend in Killarney)

this.lad

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122080318#Comment_122080318

The protected status might help get the bigger names

Paddigol

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122086414#Comment_122086414

Yeah, you'd expect to see most of them there now… not sure what approach MvdP/ WVA/ TP will be taking this season though… will the new rules make any difference or will they just suit themselves regardless? But the rest of the big names should all be there, which is absolutely fine with me. I'd nearly prefer if the Big 3 didn't show up at all than have just one of them come and destroy the field.

Hopefully this means we'll see a re-run of Puck -v- Fem.