Sam Bennett celebrates his first Tour de France stage win at Île de Ré in 2020 and now the Irishman, along with team mate Eddie Dunbar, are in line for another appearance in the race (Photo: Pauline Ballet)

Sam Bennett and Eddie Dunbar are in line for a ride at the Tour de France this year after their team, Pinarello Q36.5 Pro Cycling, was confirmed as starting. One notable absentee from the list of those teams invited under the wild card system was Unibet Rose Rockets, meaning champion Rory Townsend will miss out.

Dunbar has already spoken of going to the Giro d’Italia this year. Bennett is currently on the way back to race condition after being forced to take a break from cycling when he suffered a cardiac issue in November that required a procedure.

However, even though Dunbar has suggested he will ride the Giro, he could also do the Tour just over a month later. And once Bennett is able to return to racing, as is expected, he would likely be one of the team’s first picks for the Tour.

As well as Pinarello Q36.5 now having been confirmed for the Tour, so too is Cofidis, which has Irish U23 road race champion Jamie Meehan on its roster this year.

Jamie Meehan could ride a Grand Tour this year, but whether his debut in the three-week races will be the Tour de France will only become clear in coming months (Photo: Xavier Pereyron)

Meehan (22) is younger, and less experienced, than Bennett and Dunbar and whether he would ride the Tour will depend on how he progresses in the next few months.

But for Bennett and Dunbar, once they want to go to the race, and once their form is decent, they may be automatic picks, though nothing is confirmed yet. Bennett has appeared in the Tour four times and Dunbar made his debut last year, unfortunately being forced out after a stage 7 crash.

Pinarello Q36.5 Pro Cycling was one of three ProConti teams guaranteed a place at the Tour this year, alongside Tudor Pro Cycling and Meehan’s Cofidis. They are the three top-ranked ProConti teams in the sport, meaning their participation in the race was guaranteed.

That means confirmation on Friday they will be in the Tour de France this year was a formality. However, Townsend’s Unibet Rose Rockets was relying on a wild card invite. Those invites went instead to TotalEnergies and Caja Rural-Seguros RGA.

Dunbar, Bennett Grand Tour record

Pinarello Q36.5 Pro Cycling has 30 riders on its roster, though very few have significant Grand Tour experience. Bennett and Dunbar are among the most successful Grand Tour riders on the roster, which could mean they are among the first selected for the French Grand Tour, depending on other goals.

Eddie Dunbar takes the first of his two stage wins at Vuleta 2024, on stage 11 to Campus Tecnológico Cortizo Padron (Photo: Rafa Gomez-SCA-Cor Vos)

Bennett is way ahead of everyone else in terms of his success rate at the Grand Tours, having won 10 stages. He won three at the 2018 Giro, took two Vuelta stage wins in 2019 as well as two stages and the green jersey at the Tour in 2020. Bennett also won one stage at the Vuelta in 2020 and two stages at that race in 2022.

Dunbar has two Grand Tour stage wins to his name, both taken at the 2024 Vuelta, including a sensational victory on the summit finish atop Picón Blanco, the queen stage, on the penultimate day of racing.

He also finished 7th overall at the 2023 Giro, which is the second best GC result at a Grand Tour of any of the riders on his team this year; beaten only by Tom Pidcock’s 3rd overall at the Vuelta last year.

Only three other riders on the team have won Grand Tour stages, though Dunbar and Bennett are the only two with more than one victory in a three-week race. Pidcock won at the 2022 Tour, on Alpe d’Huez, while David de la Cruz won a Vuelta stage in 2016 and Chris Harper won at Sestrière on last year’s Giro, the day Simon Yates took the race lead.

The record of the two Irishmen puts them squarely in contention for a Tour ride this year. If that is the case, Dunbar is unlikely to race much, if at all, between the end of the Giro and the start of the Tour, assuming he rides the Giro as he has suggested.

Bennett is due to have a delayed start to his season, following his health issues. And if he is selected for the Tour his run at that race is very unlikely to be complicated by riding the Giro, though that remains to be seen.