Irish riders Kelly Murphy, Mia Griffin and Alice Sharpe are all in action this weekend with their new squad Team Rupelcleaning.
They will line out on Sunday in GP Oetingen (1.2) in Belgium, with the 120km race set to feature some of the best teams in the world including SD Worx, with last weekend's Strade Bianche winner Chantal van den Broek-Blaak, along with Movistar, BikeExchange, Team DSM, Canyon Sram and others.
Lauren Creamer, another Irish international, is also down to start the Belgian race with her trade team Lviv Cycling Team women.
Griffin, Sharpe and Creamer were all in action last week at Le Samyn des Dames (1.1), where all three were finishers and banked a good day in the saddle at the start of their season.
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Sunday's race will be the first outing of the year for Murphy, and also her debut for Team Rupelcleaning and her debut riding for a UCI-ranked team.
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The race will be harder than perhaps initially expected as many of the World Tour teams that would have put their main effort into Dutch World Tour race Ronde van Drenthe, which has been cancelled due to the pandemic, have now switched their focus to GP Oetingen.
And that means, even though the Belgian race is new to the calendar this year, its status has been bolstered by the sheer quality of the field it has attracted.
The race will be held in the Flemish municipality of Gooik and will be fought out over a 12km circuit to be contested nine times, with a short climb of seven per cent. And with some cobbles to negotiate, not to mention likely breezy conditions, it should be a challenging day.
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