Lara Gillespie (19) and Alice Sharpe (26), the current and former Irish road race champions, are among five top Irish female riders to sign for a new team at UCI Continental level.
Also in the team is Mia Griffin (21), a winner of the U23 bronze at the recent European Track Championships, as well as former national TT champion Kelly Murphy (31) and up and coming rider, and two-time elite national track champion, Gaby Homer (20).
The five top Irish riders have joined Team Rupelcleaning, a Belgian team that will be registered in Ireland and has more Irish riders than any other nationality.
While the team is new to UCI Continental level, and has a new sponsor, it is not a completely new outfit. Instead, it is a new iteration of the ILLI-Bikes Cycling Team, which Griffin rode for this year and fellow Irish rider Michelle Geoghegan rode for last year.
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Others in the team for next year include Belgian elite road international Sara Van de Vel (26), who was selected for the Imola Worlds this year, as well as Claire Faber (22), Luxembourg's U23 road race and TT champion.
Lara Gillespie, left, goes into the new team having won the Irish road race title this year, while Mia Griffin has just won U23 individual pursuit bronze at the European Track Championships
The team has also signed German teenager Lucy Mayrhofer (18), an international rider stepping up to the U23 and elite ranks in 2021, as well as Danish elite international and former national TT champion Trine Schmidt (32).
Aline Seitz, a 22-year-old Swiss international on the road, is also in the line-up for 2021, as is Austrian double national track champion Verena Eberhardt (25), Croatian international, elite national road race champion and U23 TT champion, Maja Perinović (21).
Of the five Irish riders in the team, two have ridden for UCI teams in recent years; Murphy with Storey Racing and Sharpe with the UCI's trade team last year and Ciclotel this season.
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Griffin is effectively staying with her team from this year but as it is moving up to Continental level he progress in the sport continues unabated. For Homer, the move into the team is a step up at a great time in her career as she is so young.
Gillespie had planned to ride abroad for Illi Bikes this year - and with UCD Cycling Club at home - until the Covid-19 pandemic wiped out those foreign racing plans. It means she is effectively new to the team for 2021 and is also stepping up to a UCI team for the first time; a big move for the national champion.
Kelly Murphy, left, and Gaby Homer; a combination of experience and youth in the new team
Gillespie secured an Ad Astra scholarship in UCD for this year and that programme will continue to support her next season in a bid to contribute to her development as an athlete.
One very positive feature for the Irish riders, who combined represent a large chunk of Irish cycling's top tier, is that the squad brings together the Irish team pursuit line-up into one road trade team.
Sharpe, Griffin, Gillespie and Murphy combined just over a year ago on the track at the European Championships to break the national record. And while Homer has not been part of that line-up, yet, she won two titles at the elite Irish track championships last year.
The team will ride a full calendar of UCI racing next year and its riders and staff already have experience on that scene as they rode major pro races as Illi Bikes.
With a group of strong riders, but no stand-out star that all of the others must ride for, it is a line-up in which the Irish women should get a chance to shine in races suited to them and when they are going well.
The team has signed a total of 17 riders for next year, with a mix of newcomers and others who rode with Illi Bikes this season. As well as five Irish riders there are four Belgians, with those two nationalities the dominant presence in the team.
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