Rás na mBan, Ireland’s premier women’s bike race, is moving to Kilkenny for 2016. It will be the first time the race has taken pace in the county and will take up residency on local roads and routes from Wednesday 7 Sun and Sunday 11 September of next year. Last year saw 106 riders representing 24 teams take part.
What began as a two day race in Dublin in 2006 has grown to a five day race for 2016, the year also marking the 30th anniversary of the first women’s international stage race in Ireland.
Speaking of the decision to move the event to County Kilkenny, Race Director Valerie Considine said:
“We’ve had three successful years in County Clare and we’re grateful to Clare County Council and everyone in County Clare for their support during our time there. The ‘ethos’ of this event is to move it around the country and the time has come to move to a new location. We’re very excited by the potential of Kilkenny city and county.
The geography and tourism infrastructure in Kilkenny are second to none and make this a truly wonderful part of Ireland to visit for everyone associated with the race. We’ve already identified several challenging stage routes and the committee will be recceing the various options in the coming weeks.
We have a number of exciting announcements in the coming months and it’s clear that this is the beginning of another important chapter in the history of Ireland’s leading women’s stage race.”
