Ambitious Austrian and Belgian teams confirmed for An Post Rás
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 Cycling squad remains ambitious. That said, directeur sportif 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,” he says.
The riders who will 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.
Pöstlberger has a host of strong results to his name, including a stage win in the 2012 Tour de l’Avenir, the national Australian time trial title, plus finishing 11th in the time trial in last year’s under 23 World Road Race Championships.
He has shown strong form this season, winning the prologue of the 2.2-ranked Istrian Spring Trophy in March.
“He is only small steps away from joining one of the big teams in cycling,” states Dürauer. “If he had not suffered from various crashes and injuries in the past he probably would have made the jump already.”
Schönberger also impressed at last year’s World Championships, being out front for over 100 kilometres in the under 23 road race. Wachter was the European Junior Road Race Champion in 2013, while Bosman was third on a stage of the Giro Aosta last season.
Schoibl is described as the team’s brain by Dürauer, who states that he has taken multiple top ten results in UCI races and will guide the others on the squad.
“We are fully aware that a ‘copy paste’ of 2014 will be very, very difficult,” he said, making clear that he won’t demand his riders win overall.
“We have a young team and instead of putting pressure on them we focus on supporting them on their way to the top. We want to provide our talent with a perfect platform (training, equipment, race schedule, etc.) so they can develop.
“But, if it comes to racing, we always want to play an active role and influence the race by our style of racing. So it will be at An Post Rás, too. The tour is very long and also, due to the weather in Ireland, we will think day by day and do not focus on the GC from the very beginning.
“Of course we want to justify our invitation and be on the podium at one stage minimum. Better more, of course, and better also a top rank in the GC, too.”
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 Bountain Bike Eliminator World Champion Fabrice Mels and former runners-up in the Junior World Champion Road Race, Martijn Degreve and Emiel Vermeulen.
“The goals are to win a stage and to help Emiel Vermeulen and Elliott Porter to a top ten finish overall,” states the team’s general manager Bernard Moerman.
He is confident the team will be in good condition for the race.
“We have a full-racing programme in Belgium, Holland and France to prepare for the month of May, as this is a very important month for Team3M.”
Additional strong international outfits will be announced in the run-up to the Irish tour.
The 2015 An Post Rás will begin in Dunboyne on May 17 and will feature stage finishes in Carlow, Tipperary, Bearna, Newport, Ballina, Ballinamore, Drogheda and Skerries.
It will total almost 1200 kilometres in length and will include 21 categorised climbs.
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 18th April and the Profonde van Noord-Holland (1.2), Sunday 19th 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 & 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.”
An Post Chain Reaction Sean Kelly Team for Arno Wallaard Memorial (1.2), Saturday 18th April and Profonde van Noord-Holland (1.2), Sunday 19th April 2015.
Sean Downey (IRL)
Conor Dunne (IRL)
Xandro Meurisse (BEL)
Jens Vandenbogaerde (BEL)
Aidis Kruopis (LTU)
Paulius Siskevicius (LTU)
Jordan Stannus (AUS)
Aaron Gate (NZ)