A very large Irish team has been selected for the UCI World Road Championships in Zurich this month, with Cycling Ireland opting to bypass the Europeans and throw its full weight behind the Worlds.
One notable feature of the teams selected - across the junior, U23 and elite categories - is the quality of the teams and the very real medal prospects they carry into the world title races.
There are clear chances for Ireland to win medals in the elite and U23 men's and junior men's and women's categories; the elite men's team in particular a fantastic selection.
That team is comprised of Eddie Dunbar (Team Jayco AlUla), Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost), Conn McDunphy (Team Skyline) and Archie Ryan (Visma Lease a Bike).
Healy, a proven world class one-day racer, is perhaps the best chance for a medal, though the repeated short and sharp climbs through the course can really suit Vuelta stage winner Healy and the ultra-aggressive Ryan. McDunphy, who has been in fine form this season, deservedly gets a call up to the team.
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Speaking of medal prospects, the most like riders to take silverware from these Worlds are the paracyclists. And while very large paracycling teams have often been sent to major championships, after warranting selection and meeting the criteria for funding, only the very pointy end of the spear will be in Zurich.
Katie-George Dunlevy and Linda Kelly, who have just won TT gold at the Paralympics, are on the team sheet as are Josephine Healion and Eve McCrystal. With those names on that list, medals are very much the target for both tandems.
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Megan Armitage (EF-Oatly-Cannondale), Fiona Mangan (Cynisca Cycling) and Caoimhe O’Brien (DAS-Hutchinson-Brother-UK) comprise the elite women's team. If Armitage can find the form she display in the OIympic road race, she can make an impression aided by Mangan and O'Brien, who have been going very well of late.
While Darren Rafferty's name is not on the elite team list, that is only because the EF Education-EasyPost rider is set to line out with the U23 Irish team in Zurich. He is a potential winner of the race and one of his team mates will be his brother, Adam Rafferty (Hagens Berman Jayco).
Again, the strength in depth of the team is really impressive, with Liam O'Brien (Lidl Trek Future Racing), Jamie Meehan (CC Étupes) and Dean Harvey (Trinity Racing) all making the cut and forming a formidable squad.
The men's junior team features two potential medal winners in the shape of Seth Dunwoody (Cannibal B Victorious) and Patrick Casey (Team GRENKE-Auto Eder), both of whom have collected top tier international results this season.
But the other trio in the team are also very strong riders, including Cal Tutty (JEGG-DJR Academy) and exciting first-year junior prospects David Gaffney (Team 31 Jolly Cycles) and Conor Murphy (Caldwell Cycles).
The junior women's team features two Tofauti Everyone Active team mates in the shape of Lucy Bénézet Minns and Aliyah Rafferty, joined by VC Glendale's Aine Doherty.
It is best team Ireland has ever fielded in a junior Worlds, matched only by the two-rider team of Lara Gillespie and Maeve Gallagher in Innsbruck in 2018.
Bénézet Minns, 4th in the TT at the Worlds last year, is a potential medal winner and Rafferty is close to that level, even though she is a first-year junior. Doherty has also made a name for herself in domestic and international racing in recent years and she completes a formidable trio in a race where Ireland has not often had many options.
