The race starts and finishes in the South-East part of the town of Clonmel...
This is a closer view showing the car park where entries are taken and where it is relative to the start and finish lines...
Directions.....If you are not sure of how to get there, then take the relief road that goes around to the north of the town (N24). The roundabout at the eastern end of the N24 is the Moangarrif Roundabout. This is the view as if you were coming from the west.....
Take the third exit and head back in towards the town. If you are coming from the east then obviously, it's the first left.
You then drive through the next roundabout, past the Lidl store, past Dunnes Stores, through the roundabout at the Showgrounds Shopping Centre.........i.e. keep going straight. As as you begin to enter a more built up area with older style buildings, you turn left at the Clonmel Veterinary Clinic...
The Suirside car park is about one hundred metres up this road on the left...
As you can see from the photo above, it is located very close to Gaswork Bridge and the finish line is only about 300m away from here.
The course itself......The race starts just outside the local Lidl store on Davis Road. As you can see, the course is dead flat and stays like this for at least 2.5 kms.
After 250m, you go through the first roundabout...
...and the second one at 1.3 kms...
At the third roundabout at around 2.3 kms / 1,5 miles, you turn right...
Now the course changes completely as you leave the traffic behind and run on quiet roads. The sign below shows whats ahead...
....and it's the first 'hill' ;o) .....a humpback bridge over the River Suir....
From the middle of the bridge, there is a great view of the surrounding countryside. You can just make out the next bridge ahead...
This second bridge is only about 200m beyond the first one. You turn right here and head back in towards the town.
Along this section, you come across the only real hills along the course. The road climbs gradually, flattens out and then climbs again...
At about 4.5 kms, the road flattens out and pretty soon, the gradual descent begins...
The finish line is outside the Loreta Convent, just before the roundabout...
Overall.....A course of two halves. The first half is urban and flat. The second half is rural and has all of the hills. Any climbs are gradual and it should be a reasonably fast course.
