Irish cycling may be missing the services of Nicolas Roche and Dan Martin this year but as the cousins have retired, young riders are looking to step up and one day take their place.
Ben Healy (21) has already laid down a marker with a brilliant ride in Omloop Het Nieuwsblad on Saturday, where he rode strongly in the breakaway and remained at the head of the race deep into the finale.
And now two more young hopefuls - Archie Ryan (20) and Darren Rafferty (18) - are making their season debuts tomorrow for their teams. Both Irish riders are taking on the 154km Umag Trophy (1.2) in Croatia. They will remain on in that country for the Poreč Trophy (1.2) on Sunday.
Tomorrow's race looks like it may come down to a bunch sprint based on the course - which is undulating, though with very small climbs. However,
Poreč Trophy on Sunday tends to split up to a great extent and may come down to a battle between a smaller group in the finale.
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Ryan is now going into his third season with the Jumbo Visma development team, having first raced for the Dutch squad in 2020 and enjoying success. While Covid-19 hit the racing scene hard, especially so-called smaller races that development teams ride, Ryan showed his ability every time he hit the climbs.
He was 7th overall in the Karkonosze Tour (2.2) in Poland and 3rd in the young rider classification before placing 8th overall in Ronde de l'Isard (2.2U), with three top 10 finishes in the five stages.
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However, very early last year he pulled out of the Istrian Spring Trophy (2.2) with knee trouble and that issue, with his ACL, resulted in a full season away from racing as he worked to put right the injury. Jumbo Visma backed him while he was out of action, quickly giving him another contract for this year.
It meant he could rebuild without the worry of looking for a new team, something which he spoke to stickybottle about at the time, including being scheduled to ride for the Jumbo Visma WorldTour team, though he was forced to missed that. Now the second start to Ryan's career is about to get underway which will hopefully lead to a smoother run and the results he has already shown himself capable of.
Rafferty goes into tomorrow's race in a different position as it will be his first outing as an U23 rider. He enjoyed an incredible stint in France last year and was soon snapped up for this season by Axel Merckx's US-registered Continental team Hagens Berman Axeon.
While the transition from junior racing to the U23-elite races is always a big one, Rafferty has shown he has huge potential. He will now be looking to get to grips with his new surroundings and begin to have an influence on the racing very quickly.
The Co Tyrone teenager came up through the ranks at Island Wheelers on the domestic scene in Ireland before going to France for several months last summer to ride for Team31 JollyCycles U19.
He impressed with a series of stage race wins, starting that winning run immediately he began racing there. He went on to take 4th in the junior TT at the European Road Championships, before a strong showing in the road race in Italy.
He was then 11th in the junior TT at the Worlds in Bruges before winning both the junior TT and road race titles at the National Road Championships in Co Wicklow. He then rounded off the season with 2nd in Chrono des Nations.
