Nicolas Roche took his first ever stage race victory as a pro at the Route du Sud this year, could he make it two at the Tour of Britain next week?
Ireland will have four starters at the Tour of Britain when the eight-day race gets underway in Liverpool on Sunday.
Having ridden the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France earlier in the year, Nicolas Roche will lead a strong Tinkoff-Saxo team in the nine-stage race.
In recent weeks, Roche has been active towards the end of the WorldTour classics GP Hamburg and GP Ouest France in Plouey but found himself closed down in the final kilometres of both.
He will be looking to a high placing on general classification and may even snatch a stage win on one of the toughest editions of the race to date, while overall victory is also possible.
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He will also be hoping to top up his form for the elite road race at the World Championships in three weeks.
Roche’s Wicklow born but Danish registered teammate Chris Juul Jensen is also in good form at the moment, spending much of last Sunday’s GP Ouest France in the break before being caught in the last 5km and will surely be in some early moves throughout the week.
After taking his first pro win there last year Sam Bennett is going back to the Tour of Britain hoping for more success this year.
The Tour of Britain is the race where Sam Bennett earned his stripes last year, winning a stage for An Post-Chaimreaction and earning his first professional contract with the NetApp Endura team.
Bennett has kicked on since then and already has four professional victories to his name. But the Carrick-On-Suir man is hoping to add some more next week.
This time around the Tour of Britain has been upgraded to UCI 2.1 status and Bennett will have his work cut out sprinting against quadruple Tour de France stage winner Marcel Kittel (Giant Shimano) and a recently returned to form Mark Cavendish.
Having crashed out of the Tour de France on home territory, Cavendish will be looking to make amends f0r Omega Pharma-Quickstep at the Tour of Britain. Back to back stage wins at the recent Tour du Poiteau Charentes indicate that the Manx missile will be firing on all cylinders from day one.
Bennett is also chasing a place in the elite men's team for the World Championships, with only three Irish to start the road race.
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National road race champion Ryan Mullen will join former U23 champion Jack Wilson on the an An Post Chain Reaction team for the eight-day tour.
National road race champion Ryan Mullen will be looking to repeat the feats of Bennett a year ago and edge himself closer to a first professional contract.
A real strongman on the road, Mullen posted one of the fastest 10 mile time trials in Britain recently and will be looking towards the penultimate day race against the cloak where he will face off against Olympic champion Bradley Wiggins of Sky and Alex Dowsett of Movistar.
However, Mullen's ride in the U23 Nations Cup in Holland earlier in the year qualified the Irish a team for the U23 road race at the World Championships later this month. And he will look to show those legs that have seen him do very well in road races, underlining the fact that he is a lot more than a classy time trial rider.
He will also wear the national road champion's jersey for the first time in a stage race since winning the title in June and that should prove added incentive to make his mark as he prepares for the U23 time trial at the Worlds, where he has a great chance of a medal, or even victory.
An Post Chain Reaction will be hoping for an aggressive showing from Jack Wilson next week.
Mullen will be joined on the Tour of Britain start line by teammate Jack Wilson who has also been going very well of late for the An Post Chainreaction squad.
He put in arguably the ride of his life in the Kreiz Breizh Elites stage race in France in July, when he finished 4th overall and took three top 10 placings on the four stages, including finishing 2nd on a stage.
That followed his ride at the national road championships, where he made the winning breakaway and finished 6th, also taking silver in the U23 race.
Wilson has already ridden the junior and U23 Worlds and a good ride in the next week will confirm his place on the U23 team for Spain.
Bradley Wiggins will lead a strong Sky squad in defence of his 2013 crown, while Tyler Farrar (Garmin Sharp), Igor Anton and Alex Dowsett of Movistar, Lars Boom of Belkin and Omega Pharma Quickstep’s Paris-Roubaix winner Niki Terpstra also feature in the line up.
Live coverage of the race will begin on ITV on Sunday's opening stage before switching to ITV4 for the rest of the week.
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