Kash Adamski is the reigning US junior TT champion and won the American road title last year. He's one of the US threats in the Junior Tour of Ireland this week
If the Leaving Cert is over and the sun is out, it must be time again for one of the best junior stage races in the world, the Quanta Capital Junior Tour of Ireland.
The 2026 edition starts with a quick fire opener tomorrow, Tuesday, when the riders will race from Ennis to Barefield, via Maghera. There then follows five more road race stages until the race concludes in Ennis on Sunday.
Reputations, and friendships, will begin to be made over the next week of racing in Co Clare, and some of those will endure a lifetime. This has always been a rite of passage event for the Irish, and increasingly for the foreign visitors.
Some riders who went on to be top World Tour pros have made their bones on this race and the field set to do battle over the next six days will likely prove no different in time.
Advertisement
A total of 130 riders are on the provisional start list - which will probably change a little by the time the race rolls out for stage 1 tomorrow - with 34 Irish cyclists among them.
Matthew Walls of Cycling Leinster during stage 6 of 2025 Junior Tour of Ireland on the way to overall victory (Photo: Stephen McMahon-Sportsfile)
The Americans have done increasingly well in the race over the past decade. For example, current US champion, Quinn Simmons (Lidl Trek), won a stage in 2019 and then went on to win the junior road race at the Worlds just weeks later.
Very often the US talent has come from the Hot Tubes team and this year they have, Kash Adamaski, who looks very strong - the dual road and track rider already having won 17 American titles.
He won the TT title at the US championships last month - 12 months after winning the road race - and has taken a series of other top results across the US and Europe in recent months.
He won the final general classification in the Tour de Gironde in France in May and also the Mémorial Jimmy Duquennoy, a one-day in Belgium, in April, just a week before representing the USA at Paris-Roubaix.
Desmond Mohr of Boulder Junior Cycling has looks like a very strong prospect. He has just finished 3rd overall at the Tour of America's Dairyland has represented the USA in Italy, France and Switzerland so far this season.
EF Education-ONTO are also in the race and the American team should make a mark. Kaison Smith, for example, won silver in the junior road race at the American championships.
Smith is an established US road international, as are his Junior Tour team mates Jacob Hines and Enzo Berghout.
The British riders in the field are a little harder to judge. But, on the basis of British performances on this race down the years, there will be several on the start list whose names we'll be very familiar with by next Sunday evening.
We'll have more later on the Irish riders expected to do most of the damage.
Last year Matthew Walls, riding for Cycling Leinster, launched his career by winning the final yellow jersey. Since then he has just completed his Leaving Cert and is currently racing for APS Pro Cycling, against World Tour riders, at the Sibiu Cycling Tour (2.1).
Previous winners also include: Martin Earley, Nicolas Roche, Ian Stannard, Luke Rowe, Sam Bennett and Eddie Dunbar.
July 7th-12th | Junior Tour of Ireland
Sponsored by Quanta Capital
Start List
Tean Ireland
- Hugh Og Mulhearne J2
- Fionn Killeen J2
- Darragh Byrne J2
- Rian McCrystal J1
- James Armstrong J2
Cycling Leinster
- Jack Woods J2
- Bob Maye J2
- Oliver O Shaughnessy J2
- Noah Finn J1
- Benjamin Bergin J1
Related News
Kilcullen CC - Murphy Geospacial
- Tom Hughes J1
- Conor Regan J1
- Daithi Killeen J1
Leinster - Shay Murphy Development
- Jack Lawless J2
- Matthew Lane J2
- Jason Gilsenan J2
- Sean Delaney J1
- Darragh O Keefe J1
- Will Siminski J2
Dornan Cycling Munster
- Tony Kenneally J1
- Joshua Loos J1
- Colin Sheehan J2
- Kristupas Martinkapus J2
- Patrick Thynne J2
Team Munster Development
- Diarmuid Collins J2
- John O Mahony J2
- Ciaran O Sullivan J2
- Oran O Callaghan J2
- Andrew Connolly J2
Cycling Ulster
- Caleb McGreevy J1
- Adam Matthews J2
- James Mackey J1
- Riley Smith J2
- Curtis McKee J2
New England devo p/b Cadence Wealth Management
- Stephen Savino IV J1
- Bennett Rose J1
- Joel Kowalonek J2
- William Goguen J2
- Cian Connolly J2
Team Pau
- Owen Cairns J2
- Ollie Larner J1
- Toby Barnes J2
- George Cooper J2
- Soren Davies J1
- Reuben Cox J2
- Brion Thomas J2
Team West Lothian Clarion CC
- Ollie Paterson J1
- Duncan Hind J1
- Johnny Darling J1
- Ewan Sexton J2
- Gregor Calvert J2
- Brodie Duncan J2
Halesowen Academy-Mapei
- Joe Egan J2
- Lucas Lillistone J1
- Mikey Ratcliffe J2
- James Saunders J1
- Jacob Steed J2
- Xander Brandon-Higgs J1
360 Cycling JRT
- Harper Johnson J2
- Elliot English J2
- Rocco Schumacher J2
- Cameron Hounsell J1
- Davey Allanson J2
Team Velosport
- Sebastian Funk J1
- Egan Little J1
- Clark LaVoie J2
- Mason Wilson J1
- Tavin Garcia J1
- Leon Ouk J2
Team Rauland
- Charles Alcock J2
- Callum Maciver J2
- Gabriel Jakobsen J1
- Glen Gregory Koiv J2
- Rab Drummond J2
Team California 1
- Wendel Bauer J2
- Gregory DeBenedetti J2
- Nils Hummel J2
- Reid Mclaughlin J2
- Casey Warren J2
Team California 2
- David Avery J1
- Keon Namazie J1
- Zachary Rudy J1
- Luke Williams J1
DDP Elite Cycling
- Diego Duran J1
- Ethan Courson J1
- Coleman Hunt J1
- Lance Thode J2
- Noah Keel J1
- Samuel Frauenholtz J2
Lee Valley Youth CC team 1
- Noah Wheller J2
- Noah White J1
- Luca Geddes Gasco J2
- George Collins J1
Lee Valley Youth CC team 2
- Sam Genazzini J1
- Gaspard Robertson J1
- Ben Jones J2
- Valentin About J1
Boulder Junior Cycling
- Nathan Riemer J2
- Desmond Mohr J2
- Jack Leavell J2
- Adam Kubala J2
- Taavi Snapp J1
- Karl Bryan J1
Ignite Junior Cycling Team
- Jared Rauwerda J2
- Ben Glover J1
- Adrian Doyon J1
- Jaiden Lodha J1
Spokes Racing Team - Oscar Onley Development
- Zach Barbour J2
- Fraser Gemmell J1
- Raphael Jacquamet-Ross J2
- Louis Thornley J1
- Hamish Mayes J1
- Lee McQueen J1
Hot Tubes
- Alex Botha J1
- Kash Adamski J2
- Cormac Nagle J1
- Lasse Van Haesebroucke J1
- Sylvan Garrelts J1
- Matthew Crabbe J1
EF Education - ONTO
- Carson Baker J2
- Jacob Hines J1
- Enzo Berghout J1
- Kaison Smith J1
- Alex Snider J1
- Eli Watson J1
Isle of Man
- Roch Morgan J1
- Zach Jones J1
- Alec Sorby J2
Houston Heat Cycling
- Seth Holland J2
