Lucy Bénézet Minns, 4th in the junior TT at the World Road Championships last year and a junior European title winner earlier this season, has been called up to the senior team for the upcoming Worlds.
The junior rider is clearly already very much in the selectors' plans for the Los Angeles Olympics in four years time and they are keen to give the 18-year-old a head start at senior level with a view to rapid progression.
Bénézet Minns, who won the points race at the European Track Championships in Germany in July, will joined on the senior team for the Worlds by Olympians Lara Gillespie and Mia Griffin.
"With some riders unavailable for selection, we’re already in rebuild mode towards LA Olympic Games," said Cycling Ireland's high performance director Iain Dyer.
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"Whilst it means we can’t continue where we left off in team pursuit in Paris just yet, it’s exciting to welcome Lucy into the team for her first World Championships at just 18-years-old.
"I’m sure being able to call upon the experience of Lara and Mia will help make it a positive introduction for her, and it would be good to see other young riders follow suit in this next Olympic Cycle too.
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"Alongside this I am sure Mia and Lara will welcome the opportunity to get stuck into the bunch racing without a team pursuit in their legs first."
The three-rider Irish team will take on the world title races on the boards in Ballerup, from October 16th to 20th, with Gillespie and Griffin teaming up for the Madison. Gillespie will also ride the omnium - an event Griffin will be reserve for - while Bénézet Minns will compete in the individual pursuit.
Absent from the line-up at Kelly Murphy and Alice Sharpe - who were part of the team pursuit foursome with Gillespie and Griffin at the Olympics - as well as Erin Creighton, who was reserve for the Paris Games.
Creighton is, unfortunately, ruled out to due recent illness while neither Murphy nor Sharpe were available for selection after the busy season they have had with the Games.
However, Gillespie will go into the Worlds on the back of a return to road racing with her UAE Team ADQ team while Griffin recently won Rás na mBan with her DAS-Hutchinson-Brother-UK trade team.
Bénézet Minns was recently 7th overall at the Watersley Ladies Challenge (2.Ncup) in the Netherlands and will also compete in the UCI World Championships in Zurich before turning her attention to the senior track Worlds.
