Junior Tour of Ireland 2026 Preview

This will be the Academy’s sixth time back at one of the longest junior races on the calendar, with six days of racing based at Ennis in County Clare. This year, the team comprises Joe Egan, Mikey Ratcliffe, James Saunders and Xander Brandon-Higgs, plus guest riders Jacob Steed (Beeston) and Lucas Lillistone (Shibden) – the latest in a line of about 30 riders to have ridden here in Halesowen colours.

The race begins on the evening of Tuesday July 6 with a 70km blast through the lanes to the east of Ennis, with just one climb of note. Wednesday sees the 96km run out west to the Loop Head peninsula before the scenic finish over the Cliffs of Kilkee. Thursday’s stage takes the riders east over some familiar climbs into the Lake Country around Killaloe with the stage finish at Whitegate, while Friday is the toughest climbing stage of the race through the Burren with the “wall” at Castle Hill in Doolin about 20km from the finish in Kilfenora. Saturday has another 100km through the Burren finishing close to Ennis, while the finale is a tough circuit race on Sunday morning.

This year, the race has drawn a large group of American teams headed by the Ineos development squad Hot Tubes, and EF Education’s junior squad, while Team Ireland look as strong as ever including Liam Killeen and Hugh Og Mulhearne. The British teams are Lea Valley, Team Pau, 360 Cycling, Spokes Development and East Lothian.

This is a tough environment where the team has have always ridden creditably, with Tomos Pattinson taking a stage win and holding yellow for a day in 2022, while guest rider Nick Makin won a stage in 2024. The Academy has also had numerous top 10 stage placings, including second places for Ben Arey and Ryan Oldfield (2025) and Joe Brookes (2022), a 5th in 2023 for Luke Harris and so on.

Day One Update

Recce of stage one for the riders in the morning, then the 40-mile evening stage, run off at 28.3mph. The team had Lucas, Jacob and Mikey in a front group of about 75, finishing 10th, 12th and 14th respectively, with Xander, James and Joe dodging the many crashes to finish safely.