Cycling Ireland may have decided to send only a small team to the UCI World Road Championships in Rwanda - with six elite men selected - but it has been true to its word when it said a very large team would be picked for the Europeans in France, in just over three weeks.
No fewer than 20 riders - including some new names - are in the Irish teams. Ireland is represented in all categories, across the junior, U23 and elite title races in Drôme-Ardèche, France, where the terrain is very hilly.
Though many of the riders selected are very familiar to Irish cycling fans, others are much newer, or completely new, in the Irish national team set-up. That is especially the case in the men's and women's U23 and junior groups, which evolve from year-to-year; riders moving on and others coming up through the ranks.
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As well as having a team in all of the road races - elite woman, U23 men and women and junior men and women - Ireland will have representation in all but one of the TTs. And those TTs perhaps hold Ireland's best chances of a medal. However, this is a team - especially the U23 and junior line-ups - that has medal chances in both the road races and TTs.
In the Irish junior men's team, Rory Condon (Zappi Racing), who rode so well for a silver medal in the junior road race at the National Road Championships in Meath in June, is selected for Ireland for the first time.
And though Conor Murphy (Caldwell Cycles) and David Gaffney (Team 31 Specialized) have ridden the Worlds for Ireland before, all of the other juniors are stepping up a level - a big one - in gaining selection for the Europeans.
In terms of the junior women, both selected riders - Aliyah Rafferty and Ella Tandy - usually compete with the Tofauti Everyone Active Majaco. And though Rafferty is no stranger to an Irish jersey, Tandy gains selection for the first time.
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In the U23 men's group, Patrick Casey (Israel Premier Tech Devo) and Killian O'Brien (Petrolike) make their debuts on an U23 Irish team, though both competed for Ireland as juniors. And in the U23 women's group, Abi Conway (Westport Covey) makes her debut at this level.
The full Irish team is as follows:
- Elite Women | Fiona Mangan (Winspace Orange Seal), Caoimhe O’Brien (Cynisca Cycling).
- Junior Men | Toby Sweetman (VC Glendale), Rory Condon (Zappi Racing), Conor Murphy (Caldwell Cycles), Hugh Óg Mulhearne (AS Villemur Cyclisme), David Gaffney (Team 31 Specialized), Matthew Walls (Lucan CRC) - Murphy, Gaffney and Walls also ride TT.
- Junior Women | Ella Tandy (Tofauti Everyone Active Majaco), Aliyah Rafferty (Tofauti Everyone Active Majaco) - with Rafferty also for TT.
- U23 Men | Adam Rafferty (Hagens Berman Jayco), Seth Dunwoody (Bahrain Victorious Development Team), Liam O'Brien (Lidl Trek Future Racing), Patrick Casey (Israel Premier Tech Devo), Dean Harvey (Martigues Sport Cyclisme Payden-Rygel) and Killian O’Brien (Petrolike) - with Rafferty and Dunwoody also for TT.
- U23 Women | Abi Conway (Westport Covey), Emma Jeffers (Liv AlUla Jayco Women's Continental Team), Lucy Bénézet Minns (Lotto Ladies), Esther Wong (Torelli) - Bénézet Minns also rides TT.
In the junior men's race the riders face almost 2,000m of climb, with the U23 men climbing for 2,400m, the U23 women for 1,500m and the elite women for almost 1,700m.
Different climbs - of between 1.5 and 2km and averaging around 10 per cent - feature towards the end of the road races. The terrain should ensure very hard road races, with the final climb of each also likely to make the last key selections before the finishes.
No elite men's team is selected for the Europeans as Cycling Ireland has opted to take the elite men to the Worlds instead. The turnaround between the Worlds and Europeans very tight due to crazy scheduling this year.
The elite men's TT at the Europeans takes place just three days after men's road race at the Worlds, with one week between the Europeans and Worlds elite men's road races.
Though some riders from other countries are set to attempt the elite men's Europeans and Worlds, many nations are sending a smaller team to the Worlds, mainly due to the cost of the trip, the pure climbers' course and the altitude.
