Just over a month into the road race season several riders have staked a claim for a place on the four-rider Orwell squad for the Ras de Cymru in July.
Brian Ahern is the top scoring rider in the club with a win on St Patrick's Day, a second place last weekend in Drogheda and a sixth place finish in Dunboyne which have already earned him his upgrade to A1 category.
Theoretically Brian is still eligible for a place in the prestigious five-day stage race as the organisers will accept first category riders who were second cats when the entry was made but the much travelled former international has already indicated that he would not contend for a place on the team.
As a result the lead A2 rider in contention for the trip to Wales is Odhran Connors whose fifth place finish in Batterstown puts him at the head of queue for places on the team.
Gary McNulty, Colm Ahern and John Sower are 'bubbling under' having collected unplaced prizes lately and with riders of the calibre of David Coughlan and Stephen McNally also riding strongly, the two A2 slots are sure to be hard fought all the way to the 19th June cut-off point.
With sixth at the Des Hanlon meeting and third at the Staggs Lucan promotion respectively, Diarmuid Collins and Declan Quigley have each scored Cycling Ireland ranking points to lead the charge for the A3 place on the team.
But with just a single placing each, the lead is a fragile one with a host of other riders within touching distance including Aidan Collins who finished seventh in Dunboyne on the first day of the season.
The A4 category has provided rich pickings for Orwell riders so far with no less than four riders having scored CI ranking placings so far. Pat O'Brien scored three top three placings on three of the toughest courses of the season including victory in the Ben McKenna Memorial event two weeks ago.
O'Brien is now an A3 where more placings will strengthen his claim on the Ras de Cymru A4 slot. Dan Whiting has also tasted victory, having won his very first open race at Dunboyne on the first day of the season.
He followed it up with a fine fourth the following day in Navan and finished sixth in Newbridge to be level with O'Brien in placings won. With further outings in A4 in the coming weeks, Whiting has a chance to move ahead in the race to Newport.
Gavin Dodd's debut third place in Newbridge points to a bright future while Brian McArdle's sixth in Batterstown also puts him in the mix. Meanwhile Patrick Santini ws in the money as third unplaced A4 in Donore last Saturday and first year junior Sean McKenna collected the third unplaced A4 envelope at Ras Naomh Finian in Clonard.
There is certain to be plenty of movement in the chase for team places ahead of the event which runs from 6th to 10th July.
Orwell's team is heavily subsidised by the club and will include four riders, two from A2, one A3 and one A4 based on the category the rider started the season.
Full selection criteria can be viewed here.
Ras de Cymru caters for second, third and fourth category riders. With six stages in five days, there is something for every type of rider including a prologue time trial, a team time trial and four road stages on hilly terrain for a total of 400km of racing.
