Another member of the four-man team qualifies for Ireland through his Cork grandparents
Fresh off the back of his first Grand Tour stage victory at the Vuelta a Espana, Eddie Dunbar has been selected for the Men’s Elite Irish team that will compete in Zurich.
Two cyclists with strong links to north Cork have been selected for the Irish Men’s Elite Squad set to compete at the UCI Road World Championships in Zurich later this month.
Banteer man Eddie Dunbar, who honed his craft with Kanturk O’Leary Stone Cycling Club as a youngster, has been selected for the four man squad.
Only last week the 28-year-old Team Jayco-AIUIa rider recorded the biggest victory of his career when he was first to cross the finish line on stage 11 of the Vuelta Espana, winning his first Grand Tour stage in doing so.
In June, the Cork cyclist won the time trial event at the Irish National Championships in Athea, Limerick.
Dunbar, who is racing in Spain until the Vuelta concludes on Sunday, will likely take part in the time-trial and road race events at the World Championships in Switzerland.
Wicklow cyclist Archie Ryan, who also trained under the guidance of Kanturk’s Danny Curtin underage, has also been selected for Ireland’s elite men’s squad for Zurich.
The 22-year-old professional, who rides for EF Education-EasyPost, has enjoyed a relatively successful season in 2024. In March, he won stage four of the Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali and also won the Youth (best placed rider under-23) classification at the Italian race.
Ben Healy, who grew up near Birmingham but qualifies for Ireland through his Cork grandparents, has also been chosen to represent Ireland.
Healy (23), who won a stage of the Giro d’Italia last year, also rides for EF Education-EasyPost and this season he has won stage five of the Tour of Slovenia and finished a respectable tenth in the Olympic Road Race in Paris.
The fourth rider selected for the team is Conn McDunphy from Kilcock in Meath. The 27-year-old, who rides for the US-based Team Skyline, won stage two of this year’s Rás Tailteann, which began in Kanturk, and also earned stage victories at the Tour de Beauce in Canada and the Tour of Szeklerland in Romania this season.