Marko Tedeschi Italy

Matteo Collodel Italy

With just three weeks remaining before the start of the 2014 An Post Rás, the identities of the final two international teams to compete this year have been revealed by Race Director, Tony Campbell.

The Italy Team Idea squad and the Great Britain National team will travel to Ireland prior to the May 18th start in Dunboyne and both teams will field strong line-ups and harbour high ambitions.

Italy Team Idea will comprise Christian Delle Stelle, Mirko Tedeschi, Matteo Collodel, Ricardo Pichetta and Alessandro Pettit, a line-up which team manager Omar Piscina says is its best possible selection.

“They are athletes who have won many races in the U23 category. This season Delle Stelle won two races, the 1.2-ranked GP Izola Butan Plin and the 1.12 Trofeo Balestra. He was also second at the 1.1 GP Nobili. As for Collodel, he won the 1.12-ranked Trofeo Fumagalli and finished second in the Trofeo Balestra.

I think we will be very competitive in the sprints with Delle Stelle and Collodel. As for the general classification, Tedeschi will be our leader.”

In the past Tedeschi has taken top six finishes in the Piccolo Giro di Lombardia and the Trofeo Edil C and will seek to use his climbing abilities in the mountains of the An Post Rás.

Jonathan Dibben Great Britain

The Great Britain National team is yet to be finalised, with crashes suffered by riders this month complicating the likely selection. However team manager Keith Lambert has said that three riders are clear of any injury issues and are expected to form the core of the team.

These are Jon Dibben, who won a stage in last year’s Tryptique Mont & Chateaux (2.2) race and previously finished fifth in the Junior World Road Race Championships, Chris Lawless who took the 2013 National Junior Champion title and under-23 rider Germain Burton, who was tenth in the Jayco Herald Sun Tour prologue in February.

The rest of the team will be finalised closer to the start, with Lambert preferring to wait in the hope that some of the injured riders will have time to recover.

“I can’t name the goals until I know the final make-up of the team,” he states. “But hopefully we will make an impact one way or another.”

Germain Burton Great Britain

Tony Campbell has little doubt that the two teams will be make their presence felt. “Both Italy Team Idea and the Great Britain National team will enter very promising squads in the race. As is the case with all the other international teams, we expect that they will play a big part in shaping the final outcome and also in relation to stage wins and the various other classifications.”

The 2014 An Post Rás will begin in Dunboyne on Sunday May 18th and will feature stage end finishes in Roscommon, Lisdoonvarna, Charleville, Cahirciveen, Clonakilty, Carrick on Suir, Baltinglass and Skerries.

It will once again be a 2.2 ranked event on the UCI world calendar, and will feature a large number of international and professional teams.

For More Information Contact:

David Foster                            David.foster@ogilvy.com

Or

Tony Campbell                         tonycampbell@anpostras.com

www.anpostras.com