Any Irish riders put under serious pressure during last season's Dornan Rás Mumhan can take some solace from the fact the winner of the race has now made his World Tour debut, less than a year on from his victory in Co Kerry.
Luke Tuckwell's very swift transition into the World Tour ranks also underlines the standard of talent the Irish race has managed to attract from abroad. The Australian rider, still aged just 20 years, rode Rás Mumhan last year with Trinity Racing.
And not only has he been immediately called in to the Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe line-up at the start of the 2025 season, but has ridden very well at the much higher level.
He secured a contract this year with Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe Rookies, the German-registered U23 development squad which acts as a feeder team for the World Tour squad.
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UCI rules allow for riders from development teams to be slotted into their World Tour parent team's line-ups for some races. And Tuckwell got the nod for the Mallorca Challenge week of racing that gets the European pro season underway.
He made his debut for the World Tour team at Trofeo Calvià (1.1) on Wednesday. He raced again at Trofeo Serra Tramuntana (1.1) yesterday, placing 19th some 2:40 behind winner Florian Stork (Tudor Pro Cycling Team), on a day when the climbs split the field to pieces.
Tuckwell, who was still a teenager when he took his overall victory last Easter in Ireland, went on to take 10th at Giro Next Gen. He was also selected to ride Tour de l'Avenir and the World Road Championships in Zurich for Australia.
Last year at Dornan Rás Mumhan his Trinity Racing team was 2nd in the opening stage TTT, with the Australian then finishing 3rd on the next three stages. His team mates, Dean Harvey and Joseph Pidcock, also won stages on the race,
