Ronan McLaughlin leads the bunch up the first KOH on the Tour of Britain stage 2 last year and is one of seven Irish riders named on the start list for this year's event starting next weekend.
No fewer than seven Irish riders have been named on the provisional start list for the Tour of Britain, which begins in Pebbles tomorrow week.
Dan Martin, who crashed out of the Vuelta a Espana, has been named in the Garmin-Sharp team as he looks to find racing to top off his condition before the World Road Race Championships in Florence in three weeks time.
Martin did very little racing leading into the Vuelta, and his plan was to ride himself into the race and be in top condition in the third week. He was then hoping to hold that form until the Worlds, for which he is one of the hot favourites.
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However, that plan went up in smoke when he crashed out of the race this week and he has now changed his plans to take in the Tour of Britain as contingency pre-Worlds racing.
Philip Deignan, the Unitedhealthcare rider who is expected to be unveiled as a Team Sky rider for next year as early as today, is also on the provisional start list for the Tour of Britain.
Like Martin, he will be on the Irish team for the Worlds and with the race on a hilly course, he will be looking to do a very good ride himself, mostly likely in support of Martin. The race in the UK will be his last outing before the Worlds.
Felix English, who has been in fantastic form for his Rapha Condor Sharp team on the pro criterium scene in the UK this year, is also named in his squad's line-up for the race and will be looking to it as perhaps the highlight of his year.
Another Irish rider racing on the UK scene is Dominic Jelfs, who has been named on the Madison Genesis team for the eight-stage race. Like English, the event will be the highlight of his season.
Belfast's Peter Hawkins, who crashed out of the An Post Rás wearing the yellow jersey way back in May, is named on the IG Sigma Sport team. He enjoyed a very aggressive Tour of Britain last year and bagged several top 10 stage placings. He will be looking to get up the road and onto the podium again this year.
The An Post-Chainreaction squad is also in the field, with Sam Bennett named on the team and Ronan McLaughlin and Sean Downey in the reserves.
McLaughlin rode the race last year and was very aggressive. While now listed on the reserves, the An Post-Chainreaction team has definitely not been finalised yet and in its case the placement of names on the actual team for the race or in the reserves has no significance whatsoever.
The Donegal man is in the hunt to fill the fourth and final berth on the Irish team at the World Championships later this month and will be out to impress in the UK.
An Post's Sam Bennett has been in great form in the past couple of weeks, taking three podium places in pro races in Belgium including one win.
His latest result came just last evening when he was second in a pro kermesses in Belgium. A stage win in Britain is not beyond him, though the field this year is packed with quality including the world's fastest man Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-Quickstep).
Last, but by no means least, Sean Downey is also in with a very strong chance of riding the race for An Post, and has been in great climbing form this year. Like McLaughlin, it is the lumpier stages that would suit him best, and if selected he would be looking to get into the breakaways and is more than capable of doing so.
We have to stress, this start list published by the Tour of Britain this morning, Friday, is provisional and may be subject to change.
Tour Of Britain, Sept 15th - 22nd
Provisional Start List
Team NetApp Endura
1 Jonathan McEvoy GBR
2 Erick Rowsell GBR
3 Scott Thwaites GBR
4 Michael Schwarzmann GER
5 Ralf Matzka GER
6 Andreas Schillinger GER
Reserves
Blaz Jarc SLO
Alex Wetterhall SWE
Cesare Benedetti ITA
Sky Pro Cycling
11 Sir Bradley Wiggins GBR
12 Joshua Edmondson GBR
13 Bernhard Eisel AUT
14 Mathew Hayman AUS
15 David Lopez ESP
16 Ian Stannard GBR
Reserves
Chris Sutton AUS
Jonathan Tiernan Locke GBR
Geraint Thomas GBR
Madison Genesis
21 Andy Tennant GBR
22 Dominic Jelfs IRL
23 Ian Bibby GBR
24 Liam Holohan GBR
25 Alex Peters GBR
26 Dean Downing GBR
Reserves
Jack Pullar GBR
Brennan Townshend GBR
Sebastian Baylis GBR
Node4 Giordana Racing
31 Mike Northey NZL
32 Roman Van Uden NZL
33 Shem Rodger NZL
34 Dan Barry NZL
35 Steve Lampier GBR
36 James Williamson NZL
Reserves
Nathan Edmondson GBR
Richard Hepworth GBR
Andy Magnier GBR
Omega Pharma QuickStep
41 Mark Cavendish GBR
42 Michal Golas POL
43 Iljo Keisse BEL
44 Alessandro Petacchi ITA
45 Martin Velits SVK
46 Julien Vermote BEL
Reserves
Bert Grabsch GER
Jerome Pineau FRA
Frantisek Rabon CZE
Gert Steegmans BEL
Rapha Condor JLT
51 Kristian House GBR
52 Richard Handley GBR
53 Mike Cuming GBR
54 Luke Grivell-Mellor GBR
55 Felix English IRL
56 Hugh Carthy GBR
Reserves
Will Stephenson GBR
Edward Laverack GBR
Elliott Porter GBR
IAM Cycling
61 Martin Elmiger SUI
62 Heinrich Haussler AUS
63 Reto Hollenstein SUI
64 Thomas Lofkvist SWE
65 Johann Tschopp SUI
66 Marcel Wyss SUI
Reserves
Sebastien Hinault FRA
Sebastien Reichenbach SUI
Aleksejs Saramontins LAT
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71 Sacha Modolo ITA
73 Enrico Battaglin ITA
73 Stefano Pirazzi ITA
74 Edoardo Zardini ITA
75 Francesco Manuel Bongiorno ITA
76 Enrico Barbin ITA
Reserves
Marco Canola ITA
Sonny Colbrelli ITA
Angelo Pagani ITA
Sojasun
81 Jimmy Engoulvent FRA
82 Jeremie Galland FRA
83 Christophe Laborie FRA
84 David Le Lay FRA
85 Rony Martias FRA
86 Jean Lou Paiani FRA
Reserves
Jonathan Hivert FRA
Evaldas Siskevicius LTU1
Julien Simon FRA
Movistar
91 Nairo Quintana COL
92 Angel Madrazo ESP
93 Alex Dowsett GBR
94 Jose Joaquin Rojas ESP
95 Enrique Sanz Unzue EPS
96 Giovanni Visconti ITA
Reserves
Juan Jose Cobo ESP
Team IG Sigma Sport
101 Peter Williams GBR
102 Peter Hawkins IRL
103 Wouter Sybrandy NED
104 Ben Greenwood GBR
105 James Moss GBR
106 Matt Cronshaw GBR
Reserves
George Harper GBR
Andrew Griffiths GBR
UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling
111 Philip Deignan IRL
112 Marc de Maar AHO
113 Chris Jones USA
114 Lucas Euser
115 Kiel Reijnen
116 Alessandro Bazzana ITA
Reserves
Robert Forster GER
Davide Frattini ITA
Aldo Ilesic SLO
Great Britain
111 Simon Yates GBR
112 Adam Yates GBR
113 Alistair Slater GBR
114 Owain Doull GBR
115 George Atkins GBR
116 Samuel Lowe GBR
Reserves
Dan McLay GBR
Adam Blythe GBR
Matthew Woods GBR
MTN Qhubeka p.b Samsung
121 Gerald Ciolek GER
122 Andreas Stauff GER
123 Ferekalsi Debesay ERI
124 Meron Russom ERI
125 Sergio Pardilla ESP
126 Songezo Jim RSA
Reserves
Bradley Potgieter RSA
Kristian Sbragli ITA
Martin Reimer GER
Dennis Van Niekerk RSA
An Post Chain Reaction
131 Sam Bennett
132 Aaron Gate
133 Shane Archbold
134 Nicolas Verecken
135 Alphonse Vermote
136 Mark McNally
Reserves
Sean Downey
Niels Wytinck
Laurent Vandenbak
Ronan McLaughlin
Team UK Youth
141 Yanto Barker GBR
142 Marcin Bialoblocki POL
143 Ian Wilkinson Gbr
144 Jon Mould GBR
145 Chris Opie GBR
146 Rob Partridge GBR
Reserves
Niklas Gustuvsson Swe
Tobyn Horton GBR
Josh Hunt GBR
Cannondale Pro Cycling
151 Alan Marangoni ITA
152 Federico Canuti ITA
153 Nicolo’ Martinello ITA
154 Matthias Krizek AUT
155 Juraj Sagan SLO
156 Elia Vivani ITA
Reserves
Cristiano Salerno ITA
Nariyuki Masuda JPN
Davide Villella ITA
Team Raleigh
161 Lachlan Norris AUS
162 Tom Scully NZL
163 Mark Christian GBR
164 Evan Oliphant GBR
165 Alex Blain FRA
166 Tom Moses GBR
Reserves
Tom Stewart GBR
Richard Lang AUS
Alexandre Blain FRA
Garmin Sharp
171 Dan Martin IRL
172 Jack Bauer NZL
173 Nathan Haas AUS
174 Robbie Hunter RSA
175 Jacob Rathe USA
176 Steele Vonhoff AUS
Reserves
Raymond Kreder NED
Sebatien Rossler BEL
Glenn O’Shea AUS
