It's 1987, and Irish cycling is on top of the world. Stephen Roche has become only the second rider, after Eddy Merckx, to complete the Triple Crown, and Sean Kelly has secured a record-breaking sixth Paris-Nice title. Flash forward almost four decades, and while Ireland might lack the Grand Tour or Monument favourites of Roche or Kelly, it has a new cast rapidly driving the nation back up to the top tier of cycling, whether that be on the tarmac or the track.
Ben Healy ended a 38-year dry spell since the last time an Irishman donned cycling's most iconic jersey when he finished third on stage 10 of this summer's Tour de France to take hold of the maillot jaune. That "fairytale" moment came just four days after he also became the seventh Irishman to have won a stage of the Tour, and the first since Sam Bennett in 2020.
