Menu
The busiest weekend of the road racing season is upon us as we gear up for the 2024 Road National Championships, hosted by Newcastle West Cycling Club.
Kicking off with the Time Trial National Championships on Thursday evening, the best Irish riders from home and abroad converge on Athea, Co. Limerick, for what will be a stellar weekend of racing.
With the Junior Men and Elite Women (Incl. U23) road races set for Saturday before Sunday’s Junior Women and Elite Men (Incl. U23) road races take place on Sunday.
Cycling Ireland will provide live updates of all races on their social media platforms, primarily on X/Twitter, throughout the weekend.
Newcastle West Cycling Club will also be providing live updates on Instagram throughout the weekend.
Live timing from all races will be available on Pop Up Races. Links for each race will be posted on Cycling Ireland’s social media channels.
The Time Trial will encompass parts of the Road Race route, before heading towards the coastal village of Glin, which sits on the shores of the River Shannon estuary. Riders will return along the R524 to Athea, for a total distance of 36.6km.
All Para-cycling Divisions will complete a full circuit of the Road Race outer circuit (25.7km).
The primary outer circuit is Athea to Carrigkerry, turn left in Carrigkerry, back to Glenbaun Cross, turning left at the crossroads for Knockdown, continuing straight for Blaine Cross, turning left and joining the main Glin to Athea Road to the start of the circuit again.
Both Junior Races will tackle the challenging outer circuit, used for the PJ O’Riordan Memorial Road Race. The Junior Women will complete two laps, with the Junior Men completing four laps.
The Elite Men and Women will complete five and four laps of the outer circuit respectively.
The finish circuit begins up past the community centre, past the GAA and they turn left and left and left again before entering back into Athea down by the side of the community hall.
Organisers would ask all spectator traffic travelling to the events during the hours of racing to please use the following routes:
Start lists for all races are available HERE.
Lara Gillespie
The defending Women’s Road Race Champion, Gillespie has enjoyed a sensational 2024 as she picked up a host wins across Europe in the professional peloton and helped seal Team Pursuit Olympics qualification for Ireland. Gillespie also recently signed with the World Tour team UAE Team ADQ.
Eddie Dunbar
Cork native Dunbar is back at the Road National Championships after missing last year’s edition following a magnificent Giro D’Italia performance. It’s been a turbulent season for the Team Jayco-Alula rider with injuries stopping him from reaching top form, but he’ll hope to hit his stride in Limerick this week.
Megan Armitage
Armitage has been consistently racing in the women’s professional peloton in recent seasons as well as featuring for the Irish national team at major championships. A second place finish in 2021, and a third place finish last year, Armitage will be aiming to top the podium this year.
Darren Rafferty
The U23 Men’s Time Trial champion has made the step up to the UCI World Tour with EF Education Easypost in 2024 and is certainly one of the big favourites. He has featured at the front of some of cycling’s biggest stage races this season and finished as runner-up in the Under 23 Road Race National Championship the last two years.
Caoimhe O’Brien
Runner-up in last year’s Women’s Road Race, O’Brien has cut her teeth in multiple high-level races around Europe this season as she returns to once again fight for the national champion’s jersey.
Rory Townsend
The 2022 Men’s Road Race National Champion has given it everything in pursuit of the illustrious jersey in recent seasons. He heads to Co. Limerick for another crack at victory fresh off a busy season racing around Europe.
Marine Lenehan
A former triathlete and hurdler, Lenehan began focusing on cycling early last year and has already built up quite a string of results. After becoming European Gran Fondo Champion and claiming the 2024 Strade Bianche Gran Fondo, Lenehan enters the Women’s Road Race for the first time in her career and is certainly one to watch.
Archie Ryan
Riding EF Education Easypost, Ryan finished third in the Under 23 Men’s National Championship in 2022. He’s had some strong international results and will have his eye on a podium finish this weekend.
Get all the latest news about upcoming sporting events, top tips on training and exclusive interviews.
