A smiling Colin Lynch about to get his time trial underway with Chris Froome and Joaquim Rodriguez for company.
The road season may be over for everyone in Ireland and even the pros may have hung up their racing wheels on the European circuit, but in other parts of the world there is still plenty going on.
And many of the biggest names in the sport - including Team Sky's Tour de France champion Chris Froome - have been in Japan racing the Saitama Criterium.
The event offered three races - a points race, criterium and time tria; with all three events in Japan run by ASO which owns the Tour de France.
And two of the Irish stars of the paracycling world, Colin Lynch and Eoghan Clifford, have been taking part.
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Lynch is a former double world champion - on track and road - and only the week before last made an assault on the world hour record in his MC2 paracycling class.
That effort, in the Manchester velodrome, ended in disappointment when the Irish international suffered a front wheel puncture just over 40 minutes into his ride; a mishap that caused him to fall.
Clifford is the current scratch race champion on the track in is also the road time trial champion in his MC3 class.
The Galway man also took the road race and time trial titles at his first road Worlds last year.
In Japan they rode the TT event at the Saitama Criterium today, Saturday.
Clifford took 3rd place in the paracycling test with Lynch in 6th.
Both will be among Ireland's best chance of medals - hopefully gold - at Rio 2016.
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It's absolutely fantastic to see Irish riders in major international settings like this; world TT champion Eoghan Clifford about to launch his effort in Japan.
Oct 24th: Saitama Criterium, Japan
Pro Men's Individual TT
1 Nakane Hideto AIS JPN 03'59"07 00"
2 Suzuki Yuzuru BLZ JPN 04'02"16 03"
3 Onodera Rei NAS JPN 04'02"90 ' '
4 Kuboki Kazushige UKO JPN 04'05"10 06"
5 Chikatani Ryo MTR JPN 04'05"46 ' '
6 Nakamura Ryutaro SAI JPN 04'09"89 10"
7 Bardet Romain ALM FRA 04'10"90 11"
8 Nishizono Ryota BGT JPN 04'11"27 12"
9 Froome Christopher SKY GBR 04'11"71 ' '
10 Geschke Simon TGA GER 04'12"46 13"
11 Rodriguez Joaquim KAT ESP 04'18"74 19"
12 Arashiro Yukiya EUC JPN 04'18"77 ' '
13 Beppu Fumiyuki TFR JPN 04'20"06 21"
14 Vermote Julien EQS BEL 04'28"37 29"
Men's Paracycling TT
1 Fujita Masaki PAR JPN 04'20"57 00"
2 Masashi PAR JPN 04'24"06 04"
3 Clifford Eoghan PAR IRL 04'24"10 ' '
4 Kanuma Yurie TANAKA Mai PAR JPN 04'24"36 ' '
5 Merklein Vico PAR GER 04'41"49 21"
6 Lynch Colin PAR IRL 04'47"58 27"
7 Fujii Miho PAR JPN 05'59"44 01'39"
German John Degenkolb wins the criterium event at the Saitama Criterium in Japan.
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