Tour de France stage winner, Ben Healy, has been named in a strong Ireland team for the upcoming UCI Road Cycling World Championships, which take place in the Rwandan capital Kigali next month.
The former national champion has enjoyed a stellar summer, taking his first stage win at the Tour and spending two days in the coveted yellow jersey.
Healy also found himself on the podium at the prestigious Liege-Bastogne-Liege race earlier in the year, while his most recent appearances in an Irish jersey saw him take top-10s at last year's World Championships in Switzerland and at the Olympic Games in Paris.
Vuelta a Espana duo Eddie Dunbar and Archie Ryan will also travel for the Rwanda-hosted event following their three-week Grand Tour, which is currently in its early stages.
Dunbar has two Vuelta stage wins to his name, from the 2024 edition, while his strong early performance at this year’s Tour de France was cut short by injury.
Wicklow native Ryan, a former Tour de l’Avenir stage winner, is currently racing in his debut Grand Tour in Spain, and earned an impressive 21st place finish at his first Elite World Championships in 2024.
Reigning national road race champion Rory Townsend is in his second stint in the jersey, having previously won it in 2022, and recently took his team's first World Tour victory, crossing the line first for Q36.5 at the ADAC Cyclassics race in Germany.
Current time-trial national champion Ryan Mullen is another rider who is no stranger to representing Ireland at the top level. The RedBull-Bora Hansgrohe rider will replicate his Paris Olympics programme, again riding both the time trial and road race. After finishing just outside the top-10 in the TT, Mullen’s performance in the road race in Paris was integral to his team-mate Healy’s strong finish.
Last year's road race national champion Darren Rafferty makes the step up from the Under-23 ranks to the Elite level this year. Rafferty had a strong showing at the Giro d’Italia earlier this year, and the Vuelta España in 2024. Along with the road race, Rafferty will join Ryan Mullen in the Individual Time Trial in Rwanda.
Mullen and Rafferty will take part in the TT on Sunday, 21 September, with all six riders taking on the road race on 28 September.
"The course is super hard at 267.5km with 5475m elevation and the environmental conditions may prove challenging but we have a very strong team of experienced professionals we are confident can deliver a huge performance," said head coach Neill Delahaye.
"We are very proud to have this depth in the current generation of riders, all of whom are extremely motivated to give their all in the green jersey.
"The guys are all quite different riders individually with different but complimentary skillsets we believe will combine very effectively to deliver a big team job on the day.
"The deeper we can get into the race with as little stress and energy burned as possible, the higher the potential to get a result in the end.
"Using our full allocation of six quota slots gives us every chance to support that ambition of seeing an Irish rider on the podium. We have full belief in our riders and what they are capable of doing and we will be doing our utmost to support and enable them execute their best possible race in Kigali."
