Irish riders Conn McDunphy and Cian Keogh, now riding for US-registered UCI Continental team APS Pro Cycling, are set to get their European season underway on Wednesday at Volta Comunitat Valenciana (2.Pro) in Spain.
They will go up against many of the biggest World Tour teams in the sport over some very lumpy terrain.
Key riders on the start line are set to include Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe), Mads Pedersen (Lidl Trek), João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain-Victorious), Cian Uijtdebroeks (Movistar Team) and Biniam Girmay (NSN Cycling Team) to name but a few.
Though the race features no big summit finishes over the next five days, there is plenty of climbing on each of the road stages, including 3,225m of elevation gain on the 172km road to Teulada Moraira on Saturday's stage 4.
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Though Irish riders Ronan O'Connor and first-year U23 Matthew Walls are both team mates of McDunphy and Keogh at the new team this year, they are not down to ride this race.
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Keogh and McDunphy will have their work cut out for them over the course of the race and a finish this week would represent a good result, such will be the degree of difficulty going up against the major teams. Getting in a breakaway would be a performance of note.
However, both are now very experienced racers on the international scene, with Keogh having ridden for UCI Continental team Skyline last year and McDunphy one of its riders for the past two seasons.
This event will be the biggest stage race, by far, the Irish duo have taken on during their careers and represents a fantastic opportunity to compete against the stars.
McDunphy, the former elite national TT champion, has ridden one .Pro event in the past; the one-day Maryland Cycling Classic (1.Pro) in the US last year, placing 24th.
He has also represented Ireland in the elite men's road race at the Worlds, as well as the road race at TT at the Europeans. He and Keogh will get a chance to test their TT powers against the best on Thursday's stage 2 – a 17km race against the clock from Carlet to Alginet.
