Ireland will have two riders on the start line of the Tour of Britain when it gets underway in Aberdeen on Sunday for eight stages of action. WiV-SunGod has named both Rory Townsend and Matt Teggart in its team; both riders earning their places after very strong performances this season and both more than capable of animating the racing.
However, a number of other teams - at Continental and World Tour level - with Irish riders have also confirmed their teams and their Irish cyclists are absent.
Ineos Grenadiers, for example, has named its team and it does not include Eddie Dunbar, which is a real shame for Irish fans considering he won Coppi e Bartali and Tour de Hongrie this season. Instead, riders like Tom Pidcock, Magnus Sheffield, Michal Kwiatkowski and Richie Porte - riding his last race as a pro rider - are selected.
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At Trinity Racing, neither Matthew Devins nor Kevin McCambridge are in the line-up. However, Devins has lingering crash injuries that are taking longer to recover from than expected and McCambridge was forced out of the Tour de l'Avenir with illness last week.
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While some of the riders who were forced out of the Vuelta with Covid-19 will ride the Tour of Britain - including Jake Stewart of Groupama-FDJ - Sam Bennett is not in the Bora-hansgrohe line-up. The Irish rider's positive Covid-19 test came too late to the start of Tour of Britain.
But the two Irish riders that will definitely be in the race are strong prospects and both are capable of taking aim at a stage win or a classification jersey.
Townsend has recently won two races in Belgium and has held the points and climber's jersey on the Tour of Britain in recent years. Teggart finished 4th in the road race at the Commonwealth Games in Britain and also rode very well in the recent European Championships in Germany.
The Tour of Britain is a very important race for their team and both riders will be up for the battle and keen to show what they can do in a field including many of the top World Tour teams in the world, some desperately in need of UCI ranking points.
Aside from a very strong Ineos-Grenadiers team in the race, Dylan Teuns and Michael Woods are selected by Israel Premier Tech. In the Bora-hansgrohe team, Nils Politt, Felix Großschartner and Marco Haller are among its line-up.
