Top Irish juniors Seth Dunwoody (Cannibal B Victorious) and Patrick Casey (Grenke-Auto Eder) are both set to line up for at Paris Roubaix Juniors in the France tomorrow on the same day the pro men - including Ryan Mullen (Bora-hansgrohe) and Rory Townsend (Q36.5 Pro Cycling)- will compete over the pavé sectors in northern France.
And in the U23 edition of the race, over 163km, Adam Rafferty and Dean Harvey will be the Irish representatives, competing for Hagens Berman Jayco and Trinity Racing respectively.
Rafferty (18) goes into the race after a very strong outing at Tour of Rhodes (2.2) in Greece. Harvey put in a very strong performance at Dornan Rás Mumhan last weekend, winning the queen stage.
For Dunwoody and Casey, who have both accrued considerable international experience over the the last 12 months, and in the U16 ranks, tomorrow's 116km on the cobbles will be a big day in their fledgling careers.
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Both rode very well at the recent Guido Reybrouck Juniors stage race in Belgium, where Dunwoody was 5th overall and Casey 18th in the final GC. Dunwoody was also 2nd in Kuurne-Kuurne Juniors on the first day of the season in Belgium.
Dunwoody told stickybottle he was pleased to have raced hard in Rás Mumhan last weekend - where he was 10th overall - ahead of tomorrow's big showdown in France.
"The form is good and I've had a pretty similar, if not the identical, start this season this year as last," he said. "I got pretty good form coming off Rás Mumhan last year so that was kind of the plan again.
"The strategy this year was to go to Rás Mumhan and try to get some good legs from it for Paris-Roubaix the following weekend.
"So I;m pretty excited, maybe a bit nervous, for tomorrow. I don't really do nerves, but it's Roubaix at the end of the day."
