News has just reached us that Ireland will host the Masters European Championships in both DH & XC in 2011 & 2015 and if that was not enough we also have the European Elite Marathon Champs in 2014.

Information is prety scarce so far with only preliminary announcements and it will be some time till we get confirmation on venues but this is a huge step forward for the sport in this country.  Congratulations to the whole organising committee and to the president of Cycling Ireland Micheal Concannon who was apparently instrumental in driving the bid.  Here is how the nwes broke through posts from Sean Herlihy on MTBIreland.com and Epic.

Hello All,

I thought you should here this from me first. Earlier today Ireland was awarded the Masters European Championships in both DH & XC for 2011 & 2015. We have also been awarded the European Elite Marathon Championships for 2014.

These will be the biggest MTB events that we have ever had in the country and the hope is that it will help to develop our sport showcase what Ireland has to offer.

Venues have not been decided yet, nor will they be finalised for a while yet.

We will have further press releases, info etc in the coming weeks.

Sean

We will bring you more news as it is confirmed.