Eddie Dunbar will be looking to repeat the feat and make it a memorable summer as he sets out on the final Grand Tour of the season, La Vuelta Espana.
The Cork native is already a two-time stage winner in one of the most prestigious races in world cycling, and he is back in the saddle on Saturday as the race begins in the Italian city of Turin before moving to Spain.
Dunbar bowed out of his maiden Tour de France earlier in the summer after he got caught up in a crash with just under six kilometres to go in the seventh stage, arriving into Mur-de-Bretagne, and despite finishing, he withdrew from the race.
Up to that point Dunbar had looked sharp, riding for Team Jayco-AlUla, finishing fourth in the previous day's racing, the sixth stage.
A month on from that early ending in France, Dunbar returned for the Arctic Race of Norway earlier in August, and the Banteer native is now set to take on what looks set to be a gruelling and mountainous Vuelta.
"Grand Tours suit me well because I always get better towards the end. I absorb the workload of a three-week race well," said Dunbar.
"There have been glimpses of what I can do but due to crashes and illness I haven't reached my full potential."
Compatriot Archie Ryan makes his Grand Tour debut, riding with the EF Education-Easypost team, and the 23-year-old is also eyeing stage success at the first time of asking.
Born in Sydney, Ryan grew up in Wicklow and comes into the Vuelta in fine fettle, finishing second overall in the Tour of Austria in July, having previously won a mountain stage at the Tour of Slovakia.
Ryan will race under the tutelage of experienced duo, Esteban Chaves and James Shaw, and is one of four team riders facing into their first three-week race.
The Roundwood native, who cites the Sally Gap, from the Glencree side, as his favourite climb, is currently based in the Catalan city of Girona, and has just come off the back of the Vuelta a Burgos in northern Spain, so will be well equipped for the Iberian encounter.
"I'm pumped. I'm super, super excited," commented Ryan, on his team's website. "I think it is going to be a great three weeks. I haven't done a grand tour before, so I'm excited for the experience.
"We've got a super young squad. It’ll be pretty exciting and hopefully Poppy Chaves can guide us through it nicely.
"I want to try and get in the break in some of the harder stages and fight for a stage win or two. That’s the goal. There are going to be loads of opportunities.
"The training has been going pretty well. I had a good week in Burgos. It was nice to be racing in the heat that we'll probably see at the Vuelta as well. It has been a pretty steady run in. I can’t complain. I am in good form and ready to go."
Jonas Vingegaard will be favourite for the Vueta, having finished second to Tadej Pogacar in the last two editions of the Tour de France, and with the Slovenian deciding to skip the event to rest.
The 28-year-old Dane also confirmed that he will not compete in next month's World Championships and has instead decided to focus on the European Championships.
"We decided not to go to the Worlds. It doesn't really fit into the plans," Vingegaard told reporters at his Vuelta press conference on Thursday.
"We have decided, though, that we want to go for the Europeans instead. Of course, you need to be really fresh and everything to go to the World Championships this year, it really requires a lot from the rider who's participating.
"With not knowing how I'm going to come out of this Vuelta, and with how I experience it now, then we decided that it was better to not do it and then say, 'I still want to do the European Championships and that I can do that instead', then I'll have some time after the Vuelta to focus on that."
The 21-stage Vuelta runs from 23 August to 14 September.
The World Championships are being held in Kigali, Rwanda, from 21-28 September, the first time the event has been staged in Africa.
The European Championships will take place in France from 1-5 October.
Additional reporting by Reuters
