Liam O'Brien, far right, with his Lidl-Trek Future Racing team mates at the Giro Next Gen team presentation in Reggio Calabria (Photo: Fabio Ferrari)
Ireland goes into the Giro Next Gen stage race - the U23 Giro d'Italia - with our best ever chance of stage win and general classification success.
The race gets underway today, Sunday, with an opening day that features late climbs which could cause splits.
Last year's Irish stage winners, Seth Dunwoody (Bahrain Victorious Development) and Adam Rafferty (Hagens Berman Jayco) are back for more. They will be hoping to win a stage again this year, with the first chance to come today, especially for Rafferty.
He has Waterford's David Gaffney as a team mate this time around; the 19-year-old doing really well to even secure a place on the Hagens Berman Jayco for this race.
While Rafferty and Dunwoody go in as stage win contenders, Gaffney has ridden very strongly so far this year and is capable of giving a good account of himself in the week ahead.
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Cork's Liam O'Brien (Lidl Trek Future Racing) is also in the field and he starts the race as a contender to win the general classification, especially given his abilities on the climbs.
The race gets underway today with a 168km stage from Reggio Calabria to Vibo Valentia. The final 25km is uphill, including two climbs, one after another with no descent in between.
The first ascent, Mileto, is 15.3km averaging 2.1 per cent gradient. Though it isn't steep, it's long enough to soften the legs ahead of the final climb.
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That last ascent, 2.7km averaging 5.4 per cent, may well cause the first splits of this race. It is followed by a 3.5km slightly downhill stretch to the finish.
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Seth Dunwoody of Bahrain Victorious Development Team during the presentation of the teams competing in the Giro Next Gen in Reggio Calabria, Italy (Photo: Massimo Paolone)
Adam Rafferty and David Geffney, far ledt and second from left, during the presentation of the teams at Giron Next Gen (Photo: Fabio Ferrari)
