Conor Murphy is a medal contender as the Irish riders got into the U23 and junior men’s and women’s TTs on Ireland’s opening day at the Europeans in France (Photo: Toby Watson)

Team Ireland have several chances of a medal at the UEC European Road Championships this week and a number of them come tomorrow, Wednesday, on the opening day of competition in Drôme-Ardèche, France.

The national team has seven riders in action tomorrow and we have medal chances in at least two of the four TTs the Irish take on. Indeed, on the eve of these races, those medal chances include a genuine aspiration to come away with a European title.

The national team has won two European titles, both on the track, in the last 12 months – thanks to Lara Gillespie and Lucy Bénézet Minns – and taking one on the road is the obvious next step for this team.

This is the strongest across the categories that Ireland has ever assembled for these TT and road race title events. And they go into these Europeans in the afterglow of Ben Healy’s heroics at the road Worlds in Rwanda at the weekend. He took bronze, Ireland’s first medal since Sean Kelly’s bronze in 1989 in a senior road race at a Worlds.

Aliyah Rafferty checks out the TT course in France and is the sole Irish rider in the junior women’s TT at these Europeans (Photo: Toby Watson)

Tomorrow, Aliyah Rafferty (starting at 9:09am) is the only Irish rider in the junior women’s TT, which is the shortest of the day at 12.2km, from Allex to Étoile-sur-Rhône. There’s a 400m incline at the halfway point, averaging 6.6 per cent, and final climb of 1.1km at 5.2 per cent to the finish.

Rafferty (Tofauti Everyone Active Majoco) is ridden very few UCI-ranked TTs and in the sole test she competed in this year, in a Nations Cup stage race in the Netherlands, she was 26th.

However, she is much better than that result suggests; her 3rd place in last month’s Grand Prix CERATIZIT Women Junior (1.1) road race in France offering strong proof of what she is capable of. She will fancy the road race more than the TT at these Europeans, though tomorrow is a very good chance to test herself.

Adam Rafferty (starting at 12.12pm) was 10th in the U23 TT at the Worlds last year and as a second year junior two years ago he represented Ireland in the junior TT at the Worlds and Europeans, placing 8th and 10th. It means the Hagens Berman Jayco, still aged just 19 years, has never finished outside the top 10 in any of the Worlds or Europeans TTs he has ridden.

David Gaffney and Matthew Walls, two of the three Irish junior men who will compete in the TT in France tomorrow (Photo: Toby Watson)

In action with him tomorrow in the U23 TT is Seth Dunwoody (starting at 12:01pm), with both he and Rafferty having won Giro Next Gen road stages this year. Dunwoody (Bahrain Victorious Devo), a first-year U23, was 5th in the Worlds TT as a junior last year.

Their course tomorrow is 24km, from Loriol-sur-Drôme to Étoile-sur-Rhône and features two modest climbs; one of 400m averaging 6.6 per cent gradient just before the halfway point. The second is a 1.1km climb, averaging, 5.2 per cent, which takes the riders almost all the way to the finish line.

This is a course that can suit both and a medal could be on the cards. Very unusually for Ireland in a Worlds or Europeans TT, both of these riders could medal.

Lucy Bénézet Minns (starting at 11:04am) of Lotto Ladies is Ireland’s sole representative in the U23 women’s TT tomorrow, which is on the same course as the U23 men. The 19-year-old was a stand-out junior for Ireland and was 10th and 4th in the junior Worlds TT while placing 10th in her sole appearance at the Europeans, two years ago.

Lucy Bénézet Minns won a European title on the track as a junior and was 4th in the TT at the Worlds. She steps up to the U23 TT tomorrow (Photo: Toby Watson)

This year has been a big step up and it is hard to know how she will do. Though Bénézet Minns would have liked a harder course, with more climbing, she has excelled for Ireland, including winning a European track title last year, and has the goods to produce a performance.

Matthew Walls (starting at 10:04am), David Gaffney (starting at 10:20am) and Conor Murphy (starting second last at 10:44am) are up in the junior TT, on that same 24km course as the U23 men and women.

While Gaffney (Team 31 Specialized) and Walls (Lucan CRC) are very exciting prospects for Ireland – both road and TT – and can ride very well tomorrow, Irish junior TT champion and 10 mile TT record holder Murphy (Caldwell Cycles) is perhaps as strong a contender for a medal tomorrow as Rafferty and Dunwoody.

Murphy has already won a UCI-ranked TT this year, at the Peace Race in the Czech Republic, and when he placed 10th in the Worlds last year, that was seen by many as well below what he is capable of.

Because the jump from junior European racing to the pro ranks is now shorter than ever – happening instantly for some – many of the best juniors in the world base their season around the Worlds and Europeans TTs. Against that backdrop, it is hard to overestimate the competition, though Murphy is a potential winner tomorrow.