Philip Deignan is arguably one of the WorldTour's strongest climbing domestiques. He also has a Vuelta stage win and top 10 overall to his name, so how come he's never been picked for the Tour de France? (Photo: Sirotti)
Having just put in his latest Trojan performance on the climbs of Critérium du Dauphiné for Team Sky, Philip Deignan has further cemented his standing as one of the world's best climbing domestiques.
The Letterkenny man has spent the vast majority of his career in teams that rides the Tour de France, yet none of them has ever selected him for the race.
On the cusp of what could be Deignan's first Tour, Cillian Kelly teases out why Philip Deignan is still the best Irish rider never to have competed in the Tour.
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Who is the greatest Irish cyclist who has never ridden the Tour de France?
Considering that only ten riders have ever flown the flag for Ireland in the biggest race of all, you'd be inclined to think any argument over who is best of the rest would be one with many angles and no clear answer.
Is it Harry Reynolds? He was Ireland's first ever world champion way back in the 19th century.
Could it be Peter Crinnion? He was winner of the Route de France in 1962.
Or what about Sé O Hanlon; winner of a record four editions of the Rás, a record unlikely ever to be equalled?
Or moving outside the box slightly, perhaps there's a case to be made for Robin Seymour, the winner of a staggering 18 national cyclocross championships and 20 MTB titles?
Despite the names already mentioned and the impressive achievements of many others, there is a clear answer on the best Irish rider never to have ridden the Tour; Philip Deignan.
It is a small wonder that Deignan has yet to make an appearance at the race.
Deignan riding his first Grand Tour; the 2007 Vuelta a Espana where he was 71st and was very aggressive in the mountains.
After years of just missing out on selection; barring illness or injury this time around, the man from Letterkenny should finally be making his Tour debút next month at the Grand Départ in Utrecht in the Netherlands.
If you're good enough, you're old enough - so the saying goes.
And this is borne out in the ages of the ten Irish riders who have appeared at the Tour.
All ten were aged 25 years or younger when they made their Tour debut.
Dan Martin was the oldest of the lot when he was first selected in 2012 and pushing 26 years at the time.
If Deignan makes the Team Sky selection next month, he will be nearly 32 years old riding his first Tour; comparatively ancient.
So why has it taken so long for Deignan to be considered by his many teams to be named as part of the nine-man Tour squad?
Deignan has been good enough for years but a combination of both illness and injury has prevented him from taking his seat at the top table of Irish cycling before now.
He spent his first four professional seasons at AG2R Prévoyance which later became AG2R La Mondiale where he rode the Vuelta and the Giro, once each.
Deignan, still the right side of 25 years throughout all of his time there, never got a look-in for the Tour team.
While many saw it is a big step down at the time, Philip Deignan moved to Unitedhealthcare in 2012. And while he did not set the world on fire that year, he relaunched his career the following season with the US-squad when he totally recaptured the form that he been missing for a couple of seasons.
Instead, manager Vincent Lavenu would tend to lend his focus on the general classification hopes of Christophe Moreau, supported by as many French riders as were up to the task.
After all, this was a French team in the Tour de France; the indigenous riders were bound to be given preference over a promising young Irish man.
With a few wildcard stage-hunters such as Martin Elmiger and Vladimir Efimkin thrown in, there was never too much room left for Deignan to consider claiming a place for himself.
In 2009 Deignan moved on to the newly formed Cervélo Test Team which boasted an array of talent from reigning Tour champion Carlos Sastre to sprint and classics specialists Thor Hushovd and Heinrich Haussler.
With no French focus to worry about this time, Deignan's chances were scuppered simply by the volume of talent in the squad.
Riders such as Simon Gerrans, Jeremy Hunt and Xavier Florencio couldn't get into the Tour team either.
But it was then that Deignan really stepped up to the plate and made himself impossible to ignore any longer when it came to directeurs sportif deciding whether he had the minerals to take on the Tour de France.
Taking what remains the biggest won of his career; stage 18 of the 2009 Vuelta a Espana (Photo: Sirotti)
On Stage 18 of the 2009 Vuelta a Espana, Deignan outfoxed Roman Kreuziger in a two-man breakaway on the road to Ávila to take the biggest win of his career.
The time that he took from the main bunch on the stage also meant that he catapulted from 18th on overall up to ninth, where he stayed for the remainder of the race.
A rider who can finish in the top 10 of a Grand Tour and win a stage along the way would now surely be a prime candidate to ride the Tour.
But just as his physical abilities were reaching a level where he was becoming impossible to overlook, lady luck began to fail Deignan.
He remained at Cervélo for the 2010 season and despite a string of abandons in early season stage races and the Ardennes classics, he was named as part of the preliminary 12-man shortlist for the Tour which was due to start in Rotterdam.
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But when he left the Tour de Suisse due to illness, it proved to be one DNF too many, and he once again didn't make the cut.
But worse was to come later in the year as the Cervélo Test Team announced that they were ceasing to be.
Deignan was out of a job. The Cervélo Test Team ended up merging with Jonathan Vaughters' Garmin team.
Youthful Enthusiasm: Left to right, Nicolas Roche, Philip Deignan and Fumy Beppu photographed in the summer of 2003 when trying to break into the big time while riding for top French amateur team VC La Pomme Marseille.
But the disbanding of Footon-Servetto as well as Milram left a flooded market with dozens of riders scrambling for an incompatible number of places.
Deignan eventually found a berth late in the season with the Radioshack team of Lance Armstrong.
But it was another season of frustration where he was constantly chasing form.
Despite riding and finishing the Giro d'Italia in a creditable 46th place, before the Tour Deignan had the following to say about his year so far when speaking to the now defunct IrishProCycling.com:
“My form has been disappointing and has been a lot below my expectations and probably the team’s too. It has been solid and consistent but there has never been any race where I felt really good and strong.
“I’m not sure what the problem is. I’m working hard, training hard and looking after myself. I’m trying to do everything right. It’s just one of those things. Good but not exceptional.
"At my level if you are good, or even pretty good, you are going to finish in the bunch and not take the big results".
Riding the World Championships in Spain last year. His 9th place in the U23 Worlds back in 2005 still ranks as one of Ireland's best results ever at a road Worlds (Photo: Sean Rowe)
With Armstrong finally retiring in the middle of 2011, the Radioshack team's future seemed uncertain and it eventually merged with what remained of the Leopard Trek team of the Schleck brothers.
Another merger, another autumn chasing a contract for Deignan.
After two very disappointing years, this time a contract offer from a top level team was, perhaps unsurprisingly, not forthcoming and Deignan ended up signing for the American based United Healthcare team.
The following two years saw him take a string of solid general classification results in races such as the Tour of California, the Tour of Utah and the USA Pro Challenge.
He also took his first victory since that Vuelta stage at the 2013 Tour of the Gila. United Healthcare were not considered for Tour de France entry during Deignan's time there.
But he had used the break from the World Tour to recover his form and he was knocking on the door of a top contract once more.
Despite a fall and a fractured collarbone in the late-season Tour of Britain, it was Team Sky who came answering for the 2104 season.
One high point at the end of a very lean 2011 in the colours of Radioshack; taking 2nd behind Nicolas Roche on stage 3 of the Tour of Beijing.
The talk of the selection of the 2014 Team Sky team for the Tour de France centred entirely around whether David Brailsford would have the management skills required to select both Chris Froome and Bradley Wiggins.
Unfortunately for Deignan, luck was toying with him once more, this time throwing him off his bike while training in late February. The crash left him with a fractured collarbone.
It was still early days in the season, but in a team which likes to grow its Tour team into a cohesive unit throughout the entire year, it was an irrecoverable position for Deignan.
He ended up back at the Giro again. And again he performed admirably, finishing 43rd. But the Tour would have to wait once more.
At 31 years of age now, 2015 should finally be Deignan's year to ride in the biggest annual sporting event in the world.
Deignan was hugely popular with the home crowd at the Giro start in Belfast last here. He made plenty of time to meet as many fans as possible and friends of his from the home scene including VC Glendale, above.
Along with Nicolas Roche he has formed part of Chris Froome's A-list of domestiques at the just-completed Criterium du Dauphiné.
It has certainly been Team Sky's modus operandi, ever since Bradley Wiggins perfected the blueprint for his Tour win in 2012, that the riders who take part in the Dauphiné will all be intended to form the Tour de France team three weeks later.
In a couple of weeks we should be adding the name of Philip Deignan to the 10-man list of Irish cyclists who have taken part in the race.
But in a career which has never been plain sailing, you can be sure that he won't be taking anything for granted until he is underway in Utrecht.
His selection would make it much more difficult to decide who the best Irish rider never to ride the Tour was.
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