Defending Rás Tailteann champion Daire Feeley is ready to "leave everything on the road" in his bid to retain the crown he won in 2022.
The Roscommon native became the first Irishman to win the Rás Tailteann since 2008 when he took last year's edition of the famous race and he is eagerly anticipating the start line in Navan.
The five-day event will traverse the country and includes finishes in Birr, Ennis, Castlebar and Monaghan before drawing to a close in Blackrock, Co Louth.
Race organisers had signalled their intent to ramp up the difficulty after last year’s event and there are some big climbs on every stage.
For Feeley, a tough race is the minimum he expects from the Rás and he believes that it’s an event that can help to launch cycling careers onto the big stage, where future stars of the cycling world prove their mettle.
"If we look back a number of years ago and even right up to this day, the international attraction that the Rás receives in the world of cycling is massive," he told RTÉ Sport.
"A lot of cycling grades have gone through the Rás in their earlier years of their career, a lot of people who have had success in the Rás have gone on to bigger heights in the sport in terms of success.
"We've seen that with the likes of Tony Martin, we've seen it with Sam Bennett, Eddie Dunbar, a lot of Irish riders and a lot of foreign riders, British riders, riders who won the Tour de France.
"They have all gone through the Ras at some point and it may not have been the most successful race for them because of the difficulty the race poses at times.
"Being a man of the Rás is always a massive achievement, just getting through the race. But I suppose looking at the race from a results point of view, it is a massive thing to get a result in any form."
If Feeley is to get a result, he’s going to have to start with a bang. The No 1-ranked Irish road racing cyclist believes that the nature of this year’s course could see some riders out of contention at the end of the first day.
"The course is demanding," he said. "There's climbing on every single stage and they're not like French Alps by any means, but first stage, it’s very challenging. We go over the Slieve Bloom Mountains and that's probably one of the decisive moments of the race. The fact that it comes so early, it can really shake things up.
"You're not going to win the race there, but you can certainly lose it, so getting over that stage without losing any time is going to be of great importance. Then after that there's climbing every single day.
"There are no easy roads, especially when you're up around Monaghan, Cavan, that area, it's undulated and it's demanding and you know, if you have any weakness at all, it's going to show."
With local knowledge and a team that’s ready to work for him, Feeley will be one of the favourites to take the winner’s jersey and going into day one, he’s feeling confident.
"My own condition, I'm ready for the battle, I'm more than ready to take it on.
"I've been playing my cards in a special way where people are thinking, oh, maybe we can forget about Daire Feeley at the moment, but I have played the team card up until this point and I've returned a lot of favours to my team-mates from last year’s success.
"I’m ready to ride my own race now and just leave everything on the road."
