Tour of Ireland teams complete

Teams for the Tour of Ireland have now been finalised with the announcement that Rabobank, DFL-Cyclingnews and Team Maxbo Bianchi complete the 16-team line-up for the inaugural tour on 22 to 26 August.

RTÉ TV have will cover the event, while it has gained additional world-wide TV exposure. Race organisers have received confirmation that the event will get now get TV coverage in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Russia.

The three teams to complete the line-up are as follows:

DFL-Cyclingnews.com-Litespeed
Sven De Weerdt, Daniel Fleeman, Daniel Lloyd, Nico Mattan, Jens Mouris, Evan Oliphant, Jeremy Vennell.

Team Maxbo Bianchi
Edvald Boasson Hagen, Alexander Kristoff, Lars Petter Nordhaug, Gabriel Rasch, Stian Sommerseth, Joachim Bohler, Frederik Willman.

Rabobank
Martijn Maaskant, Thomas  Berkhout, Martijn Keizer, Sven Nys, Tom Veelers, Dennis Van Winden
Boy Van Poppel.

Introduction to Rabobank
Sven Nys is the elder statesman of the Rabobank team at the age of 31. Nys is better known for his exploits in the cyclo-cross discipline of the sport. In 2005 the Belgian international won the world cyclo-cross championships, the Superprestige race series, and was ranked as the world number one in that discipline.

Nys is not the only Rabobank rider with a world championship gold medal. Last year Boy Van Poppel added the junior world cyclo-cross championships gold to the Dutch national gold he had already won that year.

The 18-year-old talented youngster is son of the famous sprinter Jean-Paul Van Poppel who excited race fans with his explosive sprinting efforts during his successful racing career where he won ten stages of the Tour de France, nine in the Tour of Spain and four in the Giro D’Italia.
 
Introduction to Team Maxbo Bianchi
Team Maxbo Bianchi are a relatively new Norwegian team founded in 2005. The team has already achieved some good results with Edvald Boasson Hagen taking victory in the 2.2 ranked five-day Ringerike GP in June.

19-year-old Hagen had already shown his sprinting talents when he won three stages of the Tour de l’Avenir last year as part of the Norway national team and has already been snatched up by T-Mobile for 2008. The team won triple gold in the Norwegian national championships this year.

Alexander Kristoff won the men's road race championship after he beat Thor Hushovd (Credit-Agricole) in the sprint after 220km of racing. Hagen had already won the men's TT championship and Joachim Bohler took the men’s criterium championship.

Introduction to DFL-Cyclingnews.com-Litespeed
DFL – Cyclingnews -Litespeed has a number of riders that could be team leader on the Irish tour. Daniel Lloyd overcame altitude difficulties in the Tour of Qinghai Lake this month and finished in second place after nine gruelling stages. Lloyd wore the race leaders yellow jersey going into the final stage and lost by the narrowest margin of one second.

Evan Oliphant confirmed his form taking the Scottish Road Race Championship this year. The 25-year-old has tour experience in Langkawi and Wellington and the Edinburgh man has shown he can ride tactically after taking victories in the British Cycling Premier Calendar and Criterium series events in previous years.

The young team will be steered by the wise head of Nico Mattan. The 36-year-old former Mapei, Cofidis and Davitamon-Lotto professional is the former winner of Gent-Wevelgem, GP Plouay and two stages of Paris-Nice.