Additional Medals Available at Road Masters National Championships
Time Trial
Following requests made to the Technical Working Group at the end of 2023 on behalf of the Provinces, regarding the additional splitting of the Age Bands in the Masters Open National Time Trail Championships after a proposal was deferred at the AGM – permission was granted to run the 2024 Time Trial Championship with split age bands – however the numbers of riders starting in 4 of the new age bands was not sufficient to make these standalone championship going forward.
2024 Masters TT Split National Championship
5 Year Age Bands - no. of starters
| Open | Starters | Old Bands | Starters |
| 40 - 44 | 4 | 40 - 49 | 10 |
| 45 - 49 | 6 | ||
| 50 - 54 | 10 | 50-59 | 13 |
| 55 - 59 | 3 | ||
| 60 - 64 | 3 | 60+ | 6 |
| 65+ | 3 |
The above numbers would normally have indicated that the interest in not there to split age band however following further requests again from the Provinces the TWG has approved the 5 year split up to 64 for the open masters and a 65 plus band again for 2025 which will take place in Ulster, to see if the number of starters will increase over last year to achieve the minimum number of starters and make these split age bands a feature of our Masters Road Championships going forward.
This means there will be six sets of National Championship Medals available as indicated above and 3 National Champions Masters Open Jerseys available as before M40, M50 and M60.
There will, for 2025, continue to be a single Women’s Masters Time Trail Championship which is on a yellow flag after it only attracted 4 starters in 2024, but we hope the riders will support this event in 2025 to prevent the Championship being lapsed.
Road Race
Additionally, the TWG has approved an increased number of medals for the Masters Open Road Races in 2025 as another trial to again find what numbers there will be in these split medal championships, as they are aware that number of Masters racing is increasing.
To avoid putting additional demands onto the race promoter, with the number of events they have to organise and supply vehicles, volunteers, etc – there will continue to be 3 Road Races in the Open Section M40, M50 and M60 with team medals available subject to 3 teams of at least 3 riders being entered in each of the 3 catagories. There will then be split age band medals available depending on cycling age of the riders.
| Open RR | Jersey | Team | Individual Medal Splits | |
| M40 | Masters Jersey | Team medals subject to entries | 40 - 44 | Gold, Silver, Bronze |
| 45 - 49 | Gold, Silver, Bronze | |||
| M50 | Masters Jersey | Team medals subject to entries | 50 - 54 | Gold, Silver, Bronze |
| 55 - 59 | Gold, Silver, Bronze | |||
| M60 | Masters Jersey | Team medals subject to entries | 60 - 65 | Gold, Silver, Bronze |
| 65+ | Gold, Silver, Bronze |
As in 2024 for the 2025 season there will be a single Women Masters Road Race Championships with 2 jerseys available WM40 and WM50 with 2 sets of individual medals, and as before and team medals again subject to three or more teams being entered for the event.
We look forward to seeing if these additional National Championship Medals will lead to an increase in the number of riders racing in each category on the day and these Championships will again be reviewed by the Technical Working Group after the events are promoted in 2025 to consider plans for the Masters National Road Championships going forward.
Should you require any further information please do hesitate to contact Paul Watson – Sports and Operations
Director, here: paul.watson@cyclingireland.ie