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Cycling Ireland have launched the 2023 Road National Series, with the opening round taking place on March 26th.

The series will take place across seven rounds throughout the spring and summer and will feature racing in all four provinces.

Following a successful 2022 National Series, this year’s series will include two separate races each round – a men’s and women’s race featuring both junior and senior riders.

The first Round is in Cork, with Blarney Cycling Club hosting the event, on the local challenging roads to the North West of Blarney on March 26th.

Over the following rounds, riders will take in some of the country’s most challenging and beautiful terrain with rounds hosted in Carlow, Kerry, Meath, Down, Westmeath and Mayo.

This year’s National Series also features three new events in the Donal Crowley Memorial (Round One), the John Drumm Cup (Round Five) and the Mullingar Grand Prix (Round Six).

In 2022, Matthew Teggart was crowned senior men’s overall winner while Gabriele Glodenyte took home the senior women’s overall crown in a successful Road National Series featuring five rounds throughout the country.

Ahead of the 2023 National Series, Teggart said, “It was an honour and I was delighted to win the overall National Series last year, it’s quite a prestigious achievement and one that I definitely cherished. In my opinion, the series is very important for the Irish domestic season.

“It’s a big draw for a lot of semi-professional or aspiring professional riders like myself who also race abroad to come home and test yourself against the very best in the country. It’s something I’ll definitely be looking at (racing in) if I’m home during the year. I think the domestic racing scene is getting stronger every year and the National Series will no doubt be a hotly contested event this year.” 

Glodenyte said, “The 2022 National Series was a fantastic set of races across different parts of Ireland. What I enjoy most is that you get to see different towns and meet new people. The level of competition amongst the women’s races is high, so you can quickly learn what are the right and wrong moves to make in a race. I would highly recommend them to women who are interested in racing and want to improve their skills.” 

Full information on the 2023 Road National Series can be found here. 

Round 1 – Donal Crowley Memorial – Sunday, March 26th – Blarney Cycling Club

Round 2 – Des Hanlon Memorial – Sunday, April 2nd – Carlow RCC

Round 3 – Brian O’Loughlin Memorial – Sunday, April 23rd – Cunga CC

Round 4 – Sean Nolan Meath Grand Prix – Sunday, June 4th – Navan Road Club

Round 5 – John Drumm Cup – Sunday, June 11th – Currow CC

Round 6 – Mullingar Grand Prix – Sunday, July 16th – Lakeside Wheelers

Round 7 – Alan Towell Memorial – Saturday, August 19th – Banbridge CC