Errigal Cycling Club is delighted to announce that the fourth Errigal International Youth Tour will again take place this year over the three days of the August Bank Holiday weekend.
Entries are now invited from teams and individuals for the event that takes place from Saturday, July 30, till Monday, August 1. The club looks forward to welcoming back old friends to what is now not just the top youth race in the Irish Calendar but a race that attracts the very best in youth cyclists from Ireland the UK, Europe and beyond.
The Errigal International Youth Tour is a festival of competitive cycle racing for boys born 2000 to July 2006 and girls born 1998 to July 2006 and is the premier youth event on the Irish cycling calendar.
Make no mistake this is the one they will all want to win!
The event itself is endorsed by both Cycling Ireland and Cycling Ulster, with each body represented by their own hand-picked teams and with all the thrills, spills and excitement of top class racing, competitions is keen, and never more so than when the cream of Irish talent meet the best from the British Isles.
Last year’s Tour rolled into Churchill Village on the Saturday, set up camp, and for two days provided a vibrant, exciting, colourful spectacle of international class youth bike racing.
Over 230 young riders took part having travelled from all over Ireland the UK and as far afield as Malta and South Africa.
On the Sunday was Stage 3, the hardest of the Tour’s four stages, and as over two hundred youths in three different age categories battled their way up the now famous Keelogues Category One climb into Churchill, they were cheered on by the hundreds of spectators that lined the sides of the road in a scene that was truly reminiscent of a Stage in the Tour de France.
For some, the cheers of the crowd would drive them onto victory, for others a multitude of hands helped push them up and over the steepest sections as the heat and exhaustion started to take over.
By Monday lunchtime when the dust had settled, the prizes given out and the plaudits given and received, all that anyone talked about was how next years’ event could not come around quick enough and all agreed that the Youth Tour had stepped up to an altogether different level.
The Errigal International Youth Tour is now without doubt not only a top cycling event for youths in Ireland and the UK but is now arguably one of the top youth events in Europe.
[adrotate group=”31″]The event has a well-earned reputation for being an amateur youth event that is managed and run at a professional level in terms of organisation, quality of field, up front spectator involvement and top class, combative bike racing from youths at the very top of their game.
As for the racing? Well if it’s anything like last year it will be hard, fast and furious throughout with ecstatic highs and heart-breaking lows as dreams are either shattered or realised on the brutally tough climbs around Churchill.
The importance of this event should not be underestimated, as the children competing here are the lifeblood and future of Irish cycling..
Feedback from last year’s visitors, riders and support crew has been overwhelmingly positive, with almost all promising to return this year, we therefore believe the 2016 Tour will be bigger and better than ever.
The first two days of the event will see a return to the picturesque village of Churchill in the heart of Donegal, due in part to the wonderful atmosphere afforded by the surrounding area, fast roads, sharp bends and steep climbs… think tour de France in miniature!
[adrotate group=”39″]Entries for this year’s Youth Tour are now invited from both individuals and teams, for more information contact James Harkin (Race Director) on +353 876771566 or visit www.errigalcyclingclub.com where you can download an entry form and find out more information on the event itself.
For regular updates on the Tour it is strongly recommended that you join the Errigal Cycling Club Facebook page by clicking this link.
Saturday Day 1 Programme (provisional)
Stage 1: This is a Road Race that will roll out from Churchill and will be neutralised for approximately 1km, Category 3/3a race (U12’s) will be held over a 9.5 km circuit with the finish on the main street in Churchill. Category 2/2a (U14’s) will follow with 3 laps of the same 9.5 km circuit and Category 1/1a (U16’s) completing 5 laps of the same.
Sunday Day 2 Programme (provisional)
Stage 2: This is a challenging 3.8 km hilly time trial that will start from Larkins Bar and finish in Foxhall. This stage will apply to all competitor categories with a starting order that will be the reverse of GC.
Stage 3: This is the famous (or infamous!) Keelogues Stage that everyone looks forward to, a Road Race that takes the riders around a 9.5 km circuit that ends with the climb up Keelogues onto the main street in Churchill with the U12’s completing one lap, the U14’S completing three laps and the U16’S completing five laps.
Monday Day 3 Programme (provisional)
Stage 4: On Monday morning the competitors will roll out on to a Criterium circuit in the town of Letterkenny. This promises to again be a great spectacle.
Stages 1 and 3 are routed through hilly terrain and as this is a youth tour are of a lap nature, thus making it more spectator friendly for the following support, mentors and parents alike.
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