Having made the unusual switch from equestrian sport to cycling, Abi Conway's rapid rate of progress on the bike has now been rewarded with her first Irish team call up. The Mayo woman, who was 3rd in the U23 road race at the National Road Championships, with make her debut in green at Rás na mBan next week in Kilkenny.
Conway, a 21-year-old who competes with Westport Covey Wheelers, is part of an Irish selection that Cycling Ireland hopes will produce some of our next wave of top international riders after the success in recent years - on track and road - of Ireland's team pursuit group, and also road specialist Fiona Mangan.
And one of the very young riders tipped for the top, Aliyah Rafferty (Tofauti Everyone Active Majoco), also makes the elite national team for Rás na mBan, even though she is still a junior rider and aged just 17 years.
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Despite her youth, next week will be Rafferty's second appearance for Ireland at Rás na mBan, going into the event as Irish junior champion in the road race and TT and as part of a relatively new-look team.
As well as Irish team debutant Conway, Rás na mBan will also offer a new experience to Esther Wong (Torelli), who will be riding the race for the first time, even though she has already represented Ireland on the track and in cyclocross.
Aine Doherty (Dan Morrissey Pissei), an experienced international campaigner and also the reigning criterium national champion, will be back in the green of Ireland for what is her third appearance in the race and her second for Ireland.
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Completing the team is Erin Creighton, the McConvey Cycles who just missed out on a medal at the Junior World Track Championships two years ago, when he was 4th in the elimination race.
Creighton has since become part of the elite team pursuit set-up and travelled with the Paris Olympics last year as reserve rider in support of a team made up of Mia Griffin, Lara Gillespie, Alice Sharpe and Kelly Murphy.
Last year, Griffin put in a really strong performance at Rás na mBan, winning two stages and the overall. Though Griffin is much further down her development path compared to the riders on the national team for next week's race, they still have the legs to aim for a stage win a strong general classification showing.
Rás na mBan gets underway, for six stages of action, next Wednesday evening with an opening stage of 76.1km from Kilkenny to Freshford.
Stage 2 on Thursday takes the riders from Kilkenny to Gorey in Co Wexford, and features 1,200m of climbing. Stage 3 next Friday is 104km, taking the riders from Portlaoise to Mountrath and featuring the climb of The Cut, crested just before the halfway point.
Stage 4 is some 101km, once again starting in Kilkenny and finishing on the climb of The Rower. There follows a split stage on Sunday - a 2.5km TT in the morning and afternoon criterium - with both stages taking place in Kilkenny City.
