
The Irish elite men's and women's riders set to compete in the UCI World Road Championships, which get underway in Zurich on Sunday, will not compete in the time trials.
The decision has been taken in a bid to focus maximum effort on the road races, where Ireland has a chance of a very strong result - even a medal - in the men's road race.
Usually Ryan Mullen would be the obvious candidate for the TT - and perhaps would have joined either Ben Healy or Eddie Dunbar. But Mullen, who made his Olympic debut in style this season, is not part of the selection this time around, for what is a very hilly Worlds.
In his absence, it has been decided that neither Dunbar, the national TT champion, nor Healy will compete in the men's TT tomorrow as they are keeping their powder dry, with full focus, for the road race.
Likewise, none of the Irish women set to ride the combined U23 and elite road race at the Worlds will ride the TT, in a bid to put all their eggs in the road race basket.
"This is a performance-based decision, made in conjunction with the relevant riders and Cycling Ireland high performance unit (HPU), due with the availability of athletes, their professional commitments and where it has been agreed highest performance potential lies for Ireland at these championships," Cycling Ireland said in a statement.
There is one change to the women's road race team, with Aoife O'Brien (Cyclingteam Belco-Van Eyck) coming into the starting line-up alongside her sister Caoimhe O'Brien (DAS-Hutchinson-Brother-UK) and national road race champion Fiona Mangan (Cynisca Cycling).
Aoife O'Brien takes the place of Megan Armitage (EF-Oatly-Cannondale) on the road race team after Armitage decided to end her season early.
"Unfortunately, Megan Armitage has made the difficult decision to withdraw from competition, having previously been named as part of the women’s elite squad for the championships," Cycling Ireland said.
"Armitage, who made her Olympic debut this summer, made the decision, fully supported by the Cycling Ireland HPU, following a long and intensive season."
The first riders in action for Ireland will be Paralympic TT champions Katie-George Dunlevy and pilot Linda Kelly, as well as Josephine Healion and pilot Eve McCrystal. Those two tandem pairings will be in the Women's B TT tomorrow, Sunday.
And then on Monday it will be the turn of the brothers Darren and Adam Rafferty, in the U23 TT, along with Seth Dunwoody and Conor Murphy in the men's junior TT.
We'll have a more comprehensive preview very shortly.