Ben Healy, Darren Rafferty and Archie Ryan - who are all competing with EF Education-EasyPost this season - are set for late season racing action in Italy as the 2024 campaign enters its post-Worlds phase.
All three rode well well at the Worlds in Zurich, with Healy and Ryan 7th and 21st in the men's road race; both the best Irish finishes in an elite men's Worlds since Sean Kelly was 5th in Japan in 1990. Darren Rafferty rode the U23 Worlds, placing 6th in the TT and 12th in the road race.
And now the Irish trio can hopefully hold that form as he head into their next assignments, which will include the first time all three have raced together as team mates.
They have been named in the EF Education-EasyPost line-up for Giro dell'Emilia (1.Pro) on Saturday, which takes the riders over an undulating course of 215.3km from Vignola to the San Luca climb in Bologna
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The course takes in 3,400m of elevation gain, including five ascents of he San Luca climb, with the race finishing at the top of the climb; some 2.1km averaging 9.4 per cent.
The course will suit all three Irish riders and with Healy and Ryan having raced so well in the 274km Worlds road race, they will be out for a result. Rafferty finished La Vuelta, his first Grand Tour, last month and if he has fully recovered from that, and the Worlds, this is also an attritional course he can ride very well on.
The race is very much suited to climbers, with Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe) winning last year from Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), Simon Yates (Team Jayco AlUla) and Enric Mas (Movistar). Dan Martin was the last Irish rider to start the race, in 2021, when he finished 6th.
Eddie Dunbar (Team Jayco AlUla) was 4th in 2020, when riding for Ineos Grenadiers) and he may be named on the Team Jayco AlUla line-up for Saturday's race with the Australian squad confirms its starters.
Rafferty is also provisionally down to ride the 184km Gran Piemonte (1.Pro) next Thursday while Ryan is also penciled in for Japan Cup Cycle Road Race (1.Pro) in Utsunomiya on Sunday week. However, the start lists for those races are provisional and likely to change.
