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50th anniversary of Wicklow Cycling RaceWednesday, March 28 2007With the 2007 Murphy & Gunn Shay Elliott Memorial Road Race taking place on the roads of Wicklow on Sunday, 22nd of April, there is now less than a month remaining before the Bray Wheelers-promoted clash.
It will be the 50th anniversary of the event which was previously called Route de Chill Mhantáin. There is a total prize fund of €2,000, including a team prize of €500. The race is due to be televised on RTE’s OB Sports programme. The course for the race will be a total distance of 161.1 kilometres through Wicklow. This will take the race winner around four hours to complete the round trip from Bray. The winner will require all the cycling characteristics of strength, speed and endurance in abundance. The ceremonial start will take place at the Town Hall, Main Street, Bray at 10.30am. The race will be neutralised and will proceed on the route until the start line after 2.4 km, where the race proper will begin with a rolling start. The start of racing will be signalled to the riders from the lead car. Once racing gets underway, a sprint prime will await the riders after 22 kilometres, so the pace will be hot from the start. At Rathnew, riders come off the N11 and onto a twisting road to Glenealy, then onto Rathdrum, Avoca, Woodenbridge and Arklow. They then head towards the start of the first real climb of the race, the steep ascent of Old Wicklow Gap, locally known as Croghan, with a prime at the summit. Then it’s onto Aughrim and the undulating run-in towards the foot of the daunting Glenmalure climb, past the Shay Elliott monument at the top. Once that climb is completed, there is a tricky decent to Laragh. The riders will then climb to Annamoe and make a diversion to Ashford and back onto the N11. On the outskirts of Bray, riders will approach the final kilometres of the race on the N11 dual carriage way, and then contest the finish which will swoop up the leg sapping incline at Fassaroe Lane. The Irish continental team, Murphy & Gunn / Newlyn / Martin Donnelly / Sean Kelly are confirmed for the event, with other International teams yet to be confirmed. Other notable Irish contenders expected to take part include Eugene Moriarty (Listowel, Co. Kerry), Niall Delahaye (Redcross, Co. Wicklow), and Brian Kinneally (Piltown, Co. Kilkenny).
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