With many of our pro riders, in new teams or just in new kits, having recently been unveiled for the 2023 season, some of our best elite riders are also on the move, this time to the UK road racing scene.
Top TT rider George Peden has ridden for the PB Performance Elite team in the UK recent years, developing his testing during that period. And now he is set to remain at the team for this year when he will be joined by two other Irishmen.
Gareth O'Neill, who rode for Caldwell Cycles last year, has moved to the team, as has Irish men's criterium champion John Buller, out of the Banbridge CC stable and who rode for AC Bisontine in 2022.
The riders are expected to compete in plenty of Irish races this year, but their UK team will also get them access to the British pro bunch, where they will race against UK-based Continental and elite teams. PB Performance rode many of British Cycling's National Road Series, formerly the Premier Calendar, events last year and the Tour Series, city centre pro criteriums across Britain.
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The move will mean the three Irish riders will get to take on racing at home and then step it up with bigger opportunities through the 2023 season.
Peden began riding for the team while attending university in Leeds and announced himself with a series of TT wins in Ireland in 2020, just as racing resumed after the first major period of pandemic lockdown. His wins in 2020 included the Champion of Champions 25-mile TT, where he broke Chris Boardman's course record, which had stood since 1993.
Last season Peden claimed silver, behind Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost), in the elite TT at the National Road Championships in Kanturk after finishing just a fraction of a second up on bronze medal winner Eddie Dunbar, then Ineos Grenadiers.
Buller claimed the Irish criterium title last June in Kells, Co Meath, and the following month won Prix de Frontenaud in Saône-et-Loire in France. He also claimed the U23 road race Irish title at the National Road Championships in Co Wicklow in 2021.
O'Neill has been a regular winner on the Irish scene in recent years, after a breakthrough season in 2019 when riding for Newry Wheelers; taking the yellow jersey at the International Tour of the North. Last year he won Carn Classic for the third consecutive season while also winning the Boyne GP and International Red Hand Trophy.
