Celebrations on the double as Rás Tailteann and Navan Road Club mark 70 years

Meath start for famous race around Ireland

Tomorrow (Wednesday) sees the 70th anniversary Rás Tailteann get underway in Meath, a county that has had such huge links to the cycle race over its seven decades, and which has provided five of its overall winners.

The event is starting in Meath to mark another 70th anniversary – that of the founding of Navan Road Club in 1953.

Lying side by side in Kilmessan cemetery are two men who were great friends and comrades, Joe Christle, who spearheaded the foundation of the Rás, and Leo Collins, one of those who established Navan Road Club in 1953. The club was to go on and produce four winners of the Rás – Brian Connaughton, Seamus Kennedy, Kevin Kimmage, who joined from Dublin, and double winner, Philip Cassidy. Meath’s other winners were the great Ben McKenna and Colm Nulty of the St Patrick's Club in Stamullen.

Like everything else in Ireland, the Rás was spawned out of the political situation at the time. In the late 1940s, the International Union of Cycling ruled that the National Cycling Association (NCA) would be confined to the 26 counties. This was at a time when Partition was still a contentious issue, and the NCA refused to recognise the ruling, which Britain had originally proposed. It was expelled from the UCI, and a breakaway group, Cumann Rothaiochta na hEireann (CRÉ) was set up, which received international recognition as it confined its activities to the 26 counties for international purposes.

Those like Joe Christle who were of a nationalistic outlook weren’t going to stand idly by, and one of their main weapons in seeing off CRÉ was the Rás, a stage road race which would emphasise a Gaelic and 32-county theme. The first was a modest two-day affair, from Dublin to Wexford and back, named after the ancient Tailteann Games in Meath’s Teltown, a form of Celtic Olympics predating the Greek games by centuries, and symbolically starting at the GPO.

It was a new idea - there was little tradition of a ‘mass start’ road race in Ireland, and few, if any of the riders had previously ridden a stage race. Tom Daly’s 2003 book on ‘The Rás’ recalls how Joe approached his brother Colm the first night of the Rás in Wexford, telling him and his friend Phil Clarke one of them had better win as he had no prizes. Colm duly obliged on the return to Dublin and was crowned with a wreath of laurels, picked from the site of the ancient Teltown Games outside Navan.

It was from this inauspicious start that the current Rás, which welcomes participants from across the world, began. The following year, Christle extended the Rás to eight days and it gradually grew to a 10-day race.

Meath took the county title 14 times, with a purple patch in the 1970s, while the county's overall winners have been Ben McKenna in 1959; Brian Connaughton a decade later; Colm Nulty in 1971; Seamus Kennedy in ’78 (a year before a young Dublin cyclist named Stephen Roche); and Philip Cassidy in 1983 and again a remarkable 16 years later, in 1999.

In his book on the history of Navan Road Club, Noel Coogan described the 1991 county representatives as ‘the best Meath team ever’, with Kevin Kimmage taking the individual glory and leading the Meath Avonmore squad to the county team title in his first year with the Navan club.

Stage winners from Meath over the years were Tommy Flanagan, Ben McKenna, Frank Reilly, Gabriel Howard, Mick Creighton, Seamus Kennedy, Noel Clarke, Larry Clarke, Colm Nulty, Philip Cassidy and later, his son, Mark, and Laurence Roche, brother of Stephen and son-in-law of Navan Road Club legend, Mickser Collins.

Over the years, the race has suffered sponsorship problems, with Michael Vaughan of Trim oven firm Tirola stepping up in the 1980s as a sponsor, while FBD and An Post were major sponsors pre-Covid, and since the Covid lockdowns lifted, the race has been supported by Cairde Rás Eireann with support from Cycling Ireland and Sport Ireland.

This year’s event is a five-day affair, which race director Ger Campbell has described as ‘a much tougher route’ than last year’s, with the international field facing 767.9 kilometres and 14 climbs. Participants claimed there wasn’t enough climbing in 2022. The first day provides an undulating 154.8 kilometre stage from Navan to Birr.

Some 34 teams of five riders each, making up 170, will take part in a ceremonial start with the Minister for Sport, Thomas Byrne, at Navan O’Mahonys GAA grounds on Wednesday at 11.30am, with a neutralised ride for 7km to yellow jersey sponsors, Bective Stud on the Trim Road, where they will stop before a 12 noon official start. A sprint for bonus points takes place at Longwood en route to Clonard and into Westmeath.

Minister Byrne commented: “It is a privilege be asked to officiate over the ceremonial start of Rás Tailteann. As Sports Minister and as a Meath-based TD, I am really proud to see this prominent sporting event start in the county, as the race marks its 70th anniversary. I want to commend Cáirde Rás Tailteann for their tireless efforts in organising this year’s race and wish all participants the very best of luck.”

17th May: Stage 1, Navan to Birr (154.8km)

18th May: Stage 2, Birr to Ennis (154.5km)

19th May: Stage 3, Ennis to Castlebar (149.3km)

20th May: Stage 4, Charlestown to Monaghan (175.9km)

21st May: Monaghan to Blackrock (133.4km)

Total: 767.9 kilometres