One year after winning the race with Clemens Fankhauser, the Tirol Cycling Team will attempt to once again shine in An Post Rás, with the Austrian outfit confirming that it will take part in next month’s race.
Although Fankhauser has moved to the Hrinkow Advarics CYcleanG team, and will defend his title with them, the Tirol squad remains ambitious.
That said, team boss Norbert Dürauer emphasises that the roster comprises very young riders and so he will take a ‘wait and see’ approach.
“All of our riders have huge potential and great character. Since we played a very active role in the peloton last year we, of course, come with big ambitions to Ireland and send the crème de la crème of our team to An Post Rás,” Fankhauser said.
The riders to take part are Lukas Pöstlberger, Patrick Bosman, Mario Schoibl, Sebastian Schönberger and Alexander Wachter. Wachter competed last year helping Fankhauser win the race, while the others will all debut in the UCI ranked event.
Also announced today are Team3M from Belgium, which will include the Irish national cyclo cross champion David Montgomery and former Rapha Condor rider Elliot Porter of England.
A trio of Belgians will form the remainder of the team; these are the Mountain Bike Eliminator World Champion Fabrice Mels and former runners-up in the Junior World Champion Road Race, Martijn Degreve and Emiel Vermeulen.
Additional strong international outfits will be announced in the run-up to the tour.
The 2015 An Post Rás will begin in Dunboyne on 17 May and will feature stage finishes in Carlow, Tipperary, Bearna, Newport, Ballina, Ballinamore, Drogheda and Skerries.
It will total almost 1,200 kilometres in length and will include 21 categorised climbs.
Meanwhile, An Post Chain Reaction Sean Kelly team rider Xandro Meurisse will look to build on some recent impressive displays as the team visit the Netherlands this weekend to compete in the Arno Wallaard Memorial (1.2), Saturday 18 April and the Profonde van Noord-Holland (1.2), Sunday 19 April.
The 23-year-old Belgian, who signed with the Irish outfit in January, was the best climber at last weekend’s Circuit des Ardennes International (2.2), winning the mountains classification by a comfortable 17-point margin.
An Post team manager Kurt Bogaerts was pleased with the performance saying: “Xandro worked very hard and was in the break the first day. He managed to take a lot of points on the climbs, which was great to see. We set a target to secure the jersey and we did that so we were very happy.”
Dromore native Sean Downey will feature this weekend again alongside fellow countryman Conor Dunne, while New Zealander Aaron Gate makes his first competitive start of the new season.
There are a number of injury concerns for the team however, with Irish trio Ryan Mullen, Jack Wilson and Eoin McCarthy all picking up injuries on international duty at the Nations Cup events in Belgium and France.
2014 National Road Race Champion Mullen picked up a knee injury at the Ronde van Vlaanderen, while McCarthy required stitches for a bad cut. Wilson though emerged the worse of the three, breaking his collar bone and wrist in a crash whilst sprinting for the win at La Cote Picarde.
Bogaerts said: “It’s really unfortunate, particularly for Jack, but he’s in good spirits and as a team we will remain on the front foot going in to this weekend’s race. It will be tough and the wind will play a crucial factor but we’re confident and looking forward to it.”
