Eddie Dunbar has been added to the Team Jayco AlUla line-up for Tour de Romandie, which gets underway in Switzerland today, and joins fellow Irish riders Darren Rafferty and Archie Ryan in the race.
Rafferty and Ryan are part of the EF Education-EasyPost team for the six-stage World Tour race. And with no Richard Carapaz in that team for the next week, the Irish riders might get a chance to race for their own results, depending how it unfolds.
Though the opening stage today - a short sharp prologue TT - does not suit any of the Irish riders, though Rafferty is best-suited to the TT discipline, there is plenty of terrain this week where the Irish trio can make a mark.
However, they are competing in a race stacked with talent, including Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) riding his first stage race of the season. Carlos Rodríguez is present for Ineos Grenadiers while João Almeida and Jay Vine lead the UAE Team Emirates-XRG challenge.
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Lenny Martinez (Bahrain-Victorious) has also been in great form in recent weeks and is a general classification threat, with the likes of Aleksandr Vlasov (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) and Dunbar's team mate, Luke Plapp, also in the field.
After today's flat 3.44km TT in Saint-Imier, the terrain gets lumpier from tomorrow, though the first uphill finishes do not arrive until Friday and Saturday. Friday's stage - some 183km starting and finishing in Cossonay - ends on a small climb, which may cause some time gaps.
The big finish of Romandie 2025 is on Saturday, which includes the final ascent of Thyon 2000 at the end of the 128km stage; some 20.2km of climbing averaging 7.7km.
Dunbar was not expected to ride this race and was instead due to start his Tour de France preparations around this time. However, after a crash-interrupted early season he has been added to the line-up a little late.
For Rafferty and Ryan, it is a question of a very solid early season to date, though Ryan has experienced some ups and downs with illness. However, the climbs at this race - and hopefully the opportunity to get up the road - can really suit them.
