The video below offers some great insights into the approach taken to training by one of the country's very strongest squad's Team Aquablue long before the creation of the new pro team Aqua Blue Sport.
Aquablue began its sponsorship of cycling in Ireland by getting behind the domestic club carrying the sponsor's name. That team, under Tim Barry, grew to be one of the most dominant on the home scene.
Now Aquablue is stepping up to the ProContinental level of big time professional cycling.
The new Team Aqua Blue Sport outfit is now up and going and will ride its first major event as a full team in Australia in two weeks; the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race.
At home, the domestic Aquablue team continues - now called the Aquablue Academy. It means the sponsor now has a major pro team but is thankfully keeping the home fires burning with the separate 'amateur' domestic outfit.
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Just three years ago the domestic team made a film about their pre-season training camp in Kerry.
It's very interesting looking back at it now and considering just how far Rick Delaney's - and indeed Tim Barry's - involvement in cycling has come.
Barry, who now goes into the pro game as a sporting director with the Aqua Blue Sport ProContinental team, also wrote a great piece about the training camp in Kerry three years ago.
And looking back on it now, it shows that even when they only had the domestic team, they were already thinking professionally and organising themselves like a pro outfit.
You can read Barry's piece from the time on the Kerry training camp three years ago by following this link.
And the story below and video below is a second piece we ran at the time when we brought you inside that training camp in Kerry.
First published March 28th, 2014
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Having enjoyed a massive 22 wins last year in their maiden season as a leading race team on the domestic scene, Cork-based Aquablue have begun the new campaign much in the same way.
One of their star turns, Damien Shaw took the season-opening Lacey Cup in Tralee and has since won the Cycleways Cup on Navan; with both wins coming by way of riding every one off his wheel.
Another hugely strong rider, who wears the blue kit of the squad for the first time this year, Bryan McCrystal has looked similarly powerful.
He went of scratch in the Traders Cup in Dundalk in the first weeks of the new campaign and dropped everyone he was with, powering on alone towards victory each time he caught those up ahead.
He was even more impressive last Sunday in winning the Des Hanlon Memorial in Carlow, a race that every rider in the country would give their right arm to win.
McCrystal went clear in the early break and again dropped everyone as he powered to another fantastic solo victory.
But it's not just all about McCrystal and Shaw.
Their team mate Robin Kelly took victory on the first Leinster race of the year in the shape of the Ned Flanagan Memorial in Kildare.
And riders like Sean Lacey and especially first year U23 Dylan Foley have looked menacing when animating some of the hardest fixtures so far this year on their way to podium finishes.
Olan Barrett is another loitering with intent and whose name has been constantly in the results in recent weeks, with a really big win surely just around the corner.
Aquablue is by no means the only top squad in the country, with plenty of really strong men North and south having done serious damage already this year.
But they are a really tight and powerful unit who seem to be able to pull off fantastic rides regularly under the leadership of Tim Barry.
Have a look at this clip of their training camp and listen to Barry's voiceover for insight into how a professional approach has been injected into a domestic team to achieve the results they have.
The film has been produced by Jill & Adrian from Black Umbrella Productions.
We think the combination of insightful content, great shots and slick production values makes it one of the best videos they've created in the last couple of seasons.
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