The Tour of Britain has been the scene of some great riding from Irish cyclists in recent years - namely Matt Teggart and Rory Townsend lighting it up with attacks - and with this year's edition due to start tomorrow, there is once again plenty of Irish interest.
One of those on the start list is young Ronan O'Connor, the Global 6 United rider. The 20-year-old has plenty of international stage race experience under his belt already this year and will rub shoulders over the next six days with the likes of world and Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep), Mads Perdersen (Lidl Trek) and Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers).
Another young Irishman who will also be on the start line tomorrow in Kelso is Liam O'Brien. The 19-year-old Corkman has been riding up a storm in his first season this year with Lidl-Trek Future Racing and will be a team mate of Pedersen's this week on the roads of Britain.
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The aforementioned Rory Townsend is back again, this time with ProConti team Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team. With his sprint, and his willingness to get up the road and ride, he is a potential stage winner. He has held classification jerseys on this race in previous editions, not to mention being a past winner of the sprint classification.
Joining that trio is Dean Harvey, the Trinity Racing rider who is still aged just 21 years, and will look to impress in the week ahead by trying to get in some breakaways. Harvey has now gathered a lot of international experience, riding for his trade team and with Ireland, in recent years and can step up at a race like Tour of Britain.
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The race gets underway tomorrow with a 182km stage starting and finishing in Kelso. There are five categorised climbs on the route, including a final 2.7km ascent, at six per cent, crested 23km from the finish.
The 152.1km stage 2 from Darlington to Redcar features 2,200m of elevation gain and though the categorised climbs number just three, it is up and down all day.
Thursday's stage 3 - some 166km from Sheffield to Barnsley includes the 1.4km Hound Hill, averaging 5.5 per cent, some 5km from the finish, where there is a kicker to the line.
Stage 4 - some 138.5km from Derby to Newark-on-Trent - is almost pan flat while Saturday's penultimate stage takes the riders 149km starting and finishing in Northampton is over a similar profile, but with two short climbs just after the start.
The race concludes on Sunday with another flat run, of 158km, from Lowestoft to Felixstowe.
