Rás Tailteann

Rás Tailteann

Race details
Date	Late May
Region	Ireland
Nickname(s)	The Rás
Discipline	Road
Competition	UCI Europe Tour 2.2
Type	Stage race
Organiser	Cycling Ireland
Race director	Tony Campbell
History
First edition	1953 (1953)
Editions	62 (as of 2014)
First winner	Colm Christle (IRL)
Most wins	Sé O Hanlon (IRL) (4 wins)
Most recent	Clemens Fankhauser (AUT)

Zbigniew Głowaty, pictured after winning the 1963 Rás

Rás Tailteann (pronounced [ˈɾˠaːsˠ ˈt̪ˠalʲtʲənˠ], "Tailteann Race"), known for sponsorship reasons as the An Post Rás or the Rás for short, is an annual 8-day international cycling stage race, held in Ireland in May. Around Ireland, the race is referred to as The Rás. By naming the race Rás Tailteann the original organisers, members of the National Cycling Association (NCA), were associating the cycle race with the Tailteann Games an ancient Celtic sporting event in Ireland.

The event was founded by Joe Christle in 1953 ^[1] and was organised under the rules of the Republican-influenced organisation — the National Cycling Association (NCA). At that time competitive cycling in Ireland was deeply divided between three cycling organisations, the NCA, Cumann Rothaiochta na hÉireann (CRE) and the Northern Ireland Cycling Federation (NICF) due to the issue of nationalism and the division of Ireland into Northern Ireland and the Republic. The NCA wished for a United Ireland and refused to recognise Northern Ireland or to confine their jurisdiction to the Republic of Ireland. The Rás Tailteann was the biggest race that the NCA organised each year.

As a result of a Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) motion, the NCA was banned from international races and all teams affiliated with the UCI were banned from competing in races organised by the NCA. Therefore, only teams that were not affiliated with the UCI or who were willing to take the chance of serving a suspension for competing in the Rás Tailteann competed in the Rás Tailteann. During this time the NCA cyclists achieved prominence in the Rás with Gene Mangan, Sé O'Hanlon and Paddy Flanagan being several legends of the race. Mangan won only one Rás but featured in the race throughout the 1960s and early-1970s winning a total of 12 stages while O'Hanlon won the race four times and won 24 stages. Flanagan won the Rás three times and had 11 stage wins.

The NCA and the CRE together with NICF began unification talks in the late 1960s and early 1970s. As a result, a CRE team which included Pat McQuaid, Kieron McQuaid and Peter Doyle was able to enter the race in 1974. Doyle won the race and the McQuaids won two stages each. The first Rás open to the two associations CRE and the NICF was in 1979 and enabled Stephen Roche to compete the event as part of the Ireland team. Roche won the event.

The race has developed into a much sought after event by professional and amateur teams from many parts of the world. As part of the elite international calendar it is eligible to award qualifying points that are required for participation in Olympic Games and World Cycling Championships.

The first edition was held in 1953 as a two-day event but quickly developed into a week-long event. It has run every year since uninterrupted.

The official name of the race has been changed many times over the years, usually named after sponsors. An Post are the current title sponsors for three years starting with the 2011 edition.^[2] The race is a UCI 2.2 event.

Past winners

No.	Year	GC Winner	Nationality	Team	Points class	KOM	U23
1	1953	Colm Christle	Ireland	Gate C.C.
2	1954	Joe O'Brien	Ireland	National C.C.
3	1955	Gene Mangan	Ireland	Kerry
4	1956	Paudie Fitzgerald	Ireland	Kerry
5	1957	Frank Ward	Ireland	Dublin
6	1958	Mick Murphy	Ireland	Kerry
7	1959	Ben McKenna	Ireland	Meath
8	1960	Paddy Flanagan	Ireland	Kildare
9	1961[3]	Tom Finn	Ireland	Dublin Team		S.Dillon
10	1962	Sé O'Hanlon	Ireland	Dublin
11	1963	Zbigniew Głowaty	Poland
12	1964	Paddy Flanagan (2)	Ireland	Kildare
13	1965	Sé O'Hanlon (2)	Ireland	Dublin
14	1966	Sé O'Hanlon (3)	Ireland	Dublin
15	1967	Sé O'Hanlon (4)	Ireland	Dublin
16	1968	Milan Hrazdíra	Czechoslovakia
17	1969	Brian Connaughton	Ireland	Meath
18	1970	Aleksandr Gusyatnikov	Soviet Union
19	1971	Colm Nulty	Ireland	Meath
20	1972	John Mangan	Ireland	Kerry
21	1973	Mike O'Donaghue	Ireland	Carlow
22	1974	Peter Doyle	Ireland	I.C.F.
23	1975	Paddy Flanagan (3)	Ireland	Kildare
24	1976	Fons Steuten	Netherlands
25	1977	Yuri Lavyrushkin	Soviet Union
26	1978	Séamus Kennedy	Ireland	Kerry
27	1979	Stephen Roche	Ireland	Ireland
28	1980	Billy Kerr	Ireland	Ireland
29	1981	Jamie McGahan	United Kingdom	Scotland
30	1982	Dermot Gilleran	Ireland	Ireland
31	1983	Philip Cassidy	Ireland	Ireland
32	1984	Stephen Delaney	Ireland	Dublin
33	1985	Nikolay Kosyakov	Soviet Union
34	1986	Stephen Spratt	Ireland	Ireland
35	1987	Paul McCormack	Ireland	Longford
36	1988	Paul McCormack (2)	Ireland	Ireland
37	1989	Dainis Ozols	Soviet Union
38	1990	Ian Chivers	Ireland	Ireland
39	1991	Kevin Kimmage	Ireland	Meath
40	1992	Stephen Spratt (2)	Ireland	Dublin
41	1993	Eamonn Byrne	Ireland	Dublin Wheelers
42	1994	Declan Lonergan	Ireland	Ireland
43	1995	Paul McQuaid	Ireland	Ireland
44	1996	Tommy Evans	Ireland	Armagh
45	1997	Andrew Roche	Ireland	Kerry
46	1998	Ciarán Power	Ireland	Team Ireland
47	1999	Philip Cassidy (2)	Ireland	Team Ireland
48	2000	Julian Winn	United Kingdom	Wales team	David McCann	David McCann
49	2001	Paul Manning	United Kingdom	Great Britain team	David Kopp	Nicholas White
50	2002	Ciarán Power (2)	Ireland	Team Ireland-Stena Line	Chris Newton	Julian Winn
51	2003	Chris Newton	United Kingdom	Great Britain team	Jonas Holmkvist	Maxim Iglinskiy
52	2004	David McCann	Ireland	Ireland-Thornton's Recycling Team	Malcolm Elliott	Tobias Lergard
53	2005	Chris Newton (2)	United Kingdom	Recycling.co.uk	Malcolm Elliott	Mark Lovatt
54	2006	Kristian House	United Kingdom	Recycling.co.uk	Morten Hegreberg	Ciarán Power
55	2007	Tony Martin	Germany	Thüringer Energie Team	Dominique Rollin	Ricardo Van der Velde
56	2008	Stephen Gallagher	Ireland	An Post–Sean Kelly	Dean Downing	Kit Gilham
57	2009[4]	Simon Richardson	United Kingdom	Rapha Condor recycling.co.uk	Niko Eeckhout	David O'Loughlin	Mark McNally
58	2010	Alexander Wetterhall	Sweden	Team Sprocket Pro	John Degenkolb	Mark Cassidy	Connor McConvey
59	2011	Gediminas Bagdonas	Lithuania	An Post-Sean Kelly	Shane Archbold	Oleksandr Sheydyk	Aaron Gate
60	2012	Nicolas Baldo	France	Atlas Personal-Jakroo	Gediminas Bagdonas	David Clarke	Richard Handley
61	2013	Marcin Białobłocki	Poland	Team UK Youth	Owain Doull	Martin Hunal	Simon Yates
62	2014	Clemens Fankhauser	Austria	Tirol Cycling Team	Patrick Bevin	Markus Eibegger	Alex Peters
63	2015	Lukas Pöstlberger [5]	Austria	Tirol Cycling Team	Aaron Gate	Aidis Kruopis	Ryan Mullen
64	2016	Clemens Fankhauser (2)	Austria	Tirol Cycling Team	Aaron Gate	Nikodemus Holler	Jai Hindley

Bibliography

• Daly, Tom (2003). The Rás – The Story Of Ireland’s Unique Bike Race. The Collins Press. ISBN 1-903464-37-4. 
• Daly, Tom (2012). The Rás – The Story Of Ireland’s Unique Bike Race — paperback edition. The Collins Press. ISBN 978-1-84889-148-7. 
• Traynor, Jim. THE RÁS A Day by Day Diary of Ireland’s Great Bike Race. The Collins Press. ISBN 978-1-905451-71-5. 
• Riordan, Christy (2009). A Special tribute to Mick Murphy: Winner of 1958 Rás Tailteann. C.R. DVD & Video production. 

References

External links

• Official website