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What would a three-week Tour of Ireland route look like?
Ireland is one of the most decorated nations when it comes to Grand Tour racing. For a nation of just over five million inhabitants, it has an impressive conversion rate in three-week tours. Out of the 19 Irishmen to have ridden a three-weeker, ten have won stages. Ireland has also won all three Grand Tours plus rainbow jerseys courtesy of Stephen Roche and Sean Kelly. This isn’t a rose-tinted homage to the past, either. Irish riders have won stages at the Tour, Giro and Vuelta over the past decade, most recently from Munsterman Eddie Dunbar at the 2024 Vuelta a España.
Ireland plays host to some of cycling’s top sportives too, such as the Pan Celtic Way and TransAtlanticWay. The island also has a number of bucket list driving routes on some of Europe’s most stunning roads around places like the Antrim Coast, the Ring of Kerry and the Wild Atlantic Way. There are so many well-trodden routes, yet so few bike races.
So with that in mind, and after birthing a three-week long Tour of Britain last month, we though why keep this blueprint to England, Scotland and Wales when Ireland has just as much to give?
Why doesn’t Ireland have a big race already?
This question is a little misleading. The Rás already exists. This week-long race around Ireland has been through leaps and bounds, but after a four-year hiatus, has modestly returned as the Rás Tailteann. No WorldTour team has ever taken part in the race, but the likes of Lukas Pöstlberger, Taco van der Hoorn, Davide Ballerini and Michael Storer have all won stages at the Irish race. Giro winner Jai Hindley has finished on the podium of the Rás and a fresh-faced Tony Martin won the whole thing back in 2007.
In another form, the Tour of Ireland took place throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s. It received a short-lived reboot in the 2000s which included some top-tier teams including Mark Cavendish‘s Team Columbia, BMC Racing and Team Saxo Bank, but it eventually fizzled out due to financial troubles.
Ireland has also hosted races big and small including the Suir Valley 3-Day as well as Grand Tour starts like the 2014 Giro d’Italia which kicked off in Belfast and Dublin’s Grand Départ to the 1998 Tour de France. It’s hardly the twilight zone for international cycling, therefore.
Ireland is a nation tied together by its local sports culture. With so many stunning roads nationwide, a bulked-up bike race feels like a no-brainer. The tourism infrastructure is already in place to host riders, reporters and fans. Around 11 million people visit Ireland yearly (including the north of Ireland), making it one of Europe’s most visited countries. Game of Thrones, Star Wars, The Banshees of Inisherin and the new Dungeons & Dragons production have all been filmed in Ireland. It’s no secret that the Emerald Isle is a top-flight location in person and on camera.
The must-sees
Like with the three-week Tour of Britain we tabled earlier this month, we need to search out some mountain passes ready to be transformed into Grand Tour classic climbs.
Maybe to some readers’ surprise, Ireland has more mountain roads than the UK. If anything, it makes a better canvas for racing than Britain. There are plenty of national parks and mountain passes to choose from across the four provinces. From the Mourne Mountains in Ulster, the Dartry Mountains in Connacht, the Dingle Peninsula in Munster and the Wicklow Mountains in Leinster, there are steep cols all around the island.
Mount Leinster on the border between County Carlow and County Wexford is an easy pitch to Grand Tour fans. The gradients average out at a whopping 9.2% with slopes reaching 16% in the final kilometre. Mount Leinster has been used before in the Rás, mainly in its older days. That said, the summit was reached not long ago during the 2018 edition of the women’s race, the Rás na mBan. The climb is closed off to traffic and has a radio transmitter at the top to rival Mont Ventoux. We could even rename the climb to Sliabh Gaofar if we really want to rip off the Giant of Provence.
A little less brutal, the Conor Pass orAn Chonair is one of the highest public roads in Ireland. The climb, situated at the fingertip of the Dingle Peninsula, is in equal parts beautiful and tough. A steady ascent at a 5.9% average, the climb offers vistas of the rugged Atlantic coastline on both sides.
Thirdly, Mullaghanish is a certain highlight of any two-wheeled tour around Ireland. The Munster mountain is a tough test that is yet to feature in the Rás. Organisers, take notes. Mullaghanish – or Mullach an Ois, literally ‘the deer’s summit’ – is another transmitter service road. The climb features a number of winding switchbacks over the 6.7km-long ascent at an average gradient of 7.7%. I’ll say this now, Mullaghanish doesn’t feature on the parcours blueprint to follow (spoiler alert), but it’s good to leave something for next time.
Our 21-stage Tour of Ireland route
So, we’ve argued the case, located some classic climbs, and laid the groundwork. Now it’s time to map it all out. For context, this alternative Tour of Ireland parcours is sketched out on existing roads across the all but two of the counties of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland – sorry, Louth and Monaghan. The course is also designed to drop by major population centres, all four provinces and a heap of tourist hotspots for TV cameras to salivate over.
The Grand Départ – or Tús Mór – has been allocated to Belfast and County Down in Cyclist’s re-imagined Tour of Ireland. For this, the race will roll out of Downpatrick for a day’s hard racing around the Mourne Mountains of County Down and neighbouring Armagh. The first yellow jersey would be dished out after a punchy finale around Belfast’s hilly backdrop.
The opening couple of stages roll through Ulster with a challenging stage along the Antrim coast on Stage 2 and a hilltop finish to Strabane’s Transmitter on Stage 3. The day after, the race reminds itself of Ulster’s turbulent past with a time-trial around Derry which includes a passage through the Bogside. With the historical importance attached to the area, this will be a poignant moment for this race.
Crossing the border into the Republic, the race continues with a scenic stage around Donegal before the first summit finish of the race on Stage 6 atop County Sligo’s Truskmore (8km at 7.1%). Stage 8 brushes past Croagh Patrick and the National Famine Memorial while Stage 9 takes in the Connemara in all its beauty, following the path of the Wild Atlantic Way in parts. Via the Gaeltacht, the first week of racing concludes in Galway.
After a rest day in Connacht, the racing continues from Athlone to Lisdoonvarna, a town known for its matchmaking festival. With a passage through Limerick the day after on Stage 11, the race moves towards the postcard-ready Munster hills.
A mini-summit finish to Conor Pass in County Kerry on Stage 12 will be a field day for the photographers, but the day after marks an ode to the Ring of Kerry with a passage through the Gap of Dunloe, Killarney and a final climb up the Healy Pass – soon to be renamed Ben Healy Pass. County Cork hosts Stages 14 and 15 with a sprint stage in Kinsale and a time trial from Cobh, the last port call of the Titanic, to Ireland’s second city, Cork.
The racing resumes for the third and final week with an hommage to Sean Kelly. Stage 16 finishes in his – and equally Sam Bennett’s – hometown of Carrick-On-Suir. As a tribute to Rásaí (that’s the plural of Rás) of old, the race concludes on Seskin Hill just south of the town.
Stage 17 brings the aforementioned Mount Leinster to the fore. The Co. Carlow climb will be one of the toughest summit finishes of the race, offering a big shake-up in the general classification. The day after, Laois plays host to a wild day of racing on Stage 18, with the inclusion of Arderin and The Cut within the final 50km. The following day, the race takes a tame route towards university town Maynooth before one final mountain stage around the Wicklow Mountains. Climbing right out of Dublin’s Southside, the final climb up to Kippure is the highest point in this hypothetical Tour of Ireland route.
A time-trial around Dublin will bring proceedings to a close in this bumper-edition Tour of Ireland. During this final day, the riders will make their way from Swords in the north down to Dublin via The Liberties with an arrival on Dame Street, right by Trinity College. This isn’t too far away from Temple Bar, so expect riders and journalists alike to be flocking there after the race draws to a close. They’ll have earned a Guinness or two.
Let’s be serious. Can it be done?
Well, if a three-week Tour of Britain felt like a far-flung prospect, then a three-week long Rás sounds ludicrous.
Ireland is a lot more remote than the three other Grand Tour host nations of Italy, France and Spain. The cycling infrastructure isn’t quite there yet. The roads are great for a sportive, but a fully-fledged road race might face some trouble travelling across the Emerald Isle. If you’ve driven through the likes of the Connemara or the Antrim Glens, you’ll know just how tight those roads can be. I’m not quite sure how the Ineos Grenadiers‘ team bus would fare going up the Gap of Dunloe for instance.
That said, we can dream. Perhaps one of our readers – or indeed one of us in the editorial team at Cyclist – should head across the Irish Sea and find out. Hopefully one day Ireland can host a major bike race again. For the moment, the Rás is a great example of how domestic racing is still alive in the country. Ireland is great at celebrating local sports, just look at GAA hurling and football tournaments for example. However, a Grand Tour might be a step too far. For now, let’s just cross our fingers that the Rás attracts big teams once again.
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