David Gaffney overwhelmed winning junior road race bronze at the Europeans last year, but this season it will be a 'Worlds only' year for the Irish (Photo: Xavier Pereyron)
Cycling Ireland has decided to focus its resources on the World Road Championships in Canada later in the season and to opt out of the Europeans in Slovakia as a result.
The decision comes a year after the national governing body also took a selective approach to the Worlds and Europeans. Twelve months ago it opted to send the elite men to the Rwanda Worlds and other selections to the Europeans in France.
This year the decision is more straightforward and, because Team Ireland will take a clear miss at the Europeans, all of the national governing body's resources and focus will go into the Worlds in Montreal.
The medals there will be decided on a very hilly circuit. Ben Healy told stickybottle last year he had already begun thinking about Montreal as he believed it really suited him, much like the terrain in Kigali last September when he won bronze in the elite men's road race.
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The decision-making by Cycling Ireland last season really paid off. Healy's bronze was the first medal Ireland had won in an elite men's road race at a Worlds since Sean Kelly in 1989.
While that was a huge success for Ireland, Adam Rafferty and Conor Murphy then went and won the bronze and silver medals in the U23 and junior men's TTs at the Europeans.
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And to top it all off, David Gaffney won bronze in the junior road race, the first medal Ireland had ever won in a Europeans road race.
Furthermore, Liam O'Brien went very close to a medal in the U23 road race; his late attack just being snuffed out before he could get over the final climb.
Though the decision to send to the Worlds only this year has been made very early, giving the riders plenty of notice, it does not guarantee a full quota of Irish riders will be selected for Montreal.
The course is so hilly there will be little point in selecting riders suited to flatter terrain and sprint-based racing.
However, there still should be several Irish teams across the senior, U23 and junior - men's and women's - road races and time trials in Canada in late September.
Irish cycling fans considering going to see the Worlds at least now know a national team will be selected, with representation expected in a number of races.
However, exactly how many events will have Irish riders on the start line, and who those riders are, will only be confirmed closer to the time.
Some riders have already been told they are certain of a place on the Worlds national team, though full selections are not yet decided.
