An Post Rás na mBan has been voted the ‘Best Competitive Event of 2015’ in the Cycling Ireland Annual Membership Awards.

Event presentation manager Margaret Donnelly accepted the award on behalf of the organisers.

Event presentation manager Margaret Donnelly accepted the award on behalf of the organisers.

The award, voted by the individual Cycling Ireland licence holders, is the third time that Ireland’s premier women’s bike race has been honoured in this fashion.

The announcement was made at Saturday’s Cycling Ireland Annual Awards presentation at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Santry, County Dublin. Event presentation manager Margaret Donnelly accepted the award on behalf of the organisers.

The nomination citation commended the event for “providing a champagne race on a beer budget. It takes a village to organise it and it continues to go from strength to strength each year.” The 2015 running of Ireland’s premier women’s bike race was the biggest yet with 25 teams on the start line for the tenth edition of Rás na mBan in Ennis last September.

The event moves to County Kilkenny in 2016 when it will mark the 30th anniversary of the first Irish international women’s stage race, the John Hearn Memorial held in Tipperary in 1986.