Regan Gough New Zealand National Team

Adding to the five overseas teams already confirmed for this year’s An Post Rás, the race organisation has confirmed that national squads from Canada and New Zealand will also be part of the 2015 edition. 

The teams are travelling long distances to do a block of European racing, of which An Post Rás is an important element. 

“Our team will once again be composed of a young group of riders, many of them coming from our national team pursuit programme,” stated Cycling Canada’s development coach Luc Arseneau. 

The team competed in the race last year and took a superb third overall with Nic Hamilton. The rider also clocked up several strong stage placings. 

While Hamilton won’t compete this time around, Arseneau has someone else in mind to head the squad. 

We are currently in Europe with seven riders and are not yet ready to confirm our roster. At the moment, I’d say Sean MacKinnon will be leading our team at this event. He was at the Rás last year and had some impressive results helping Nic Hamilton get on the podium.”

Alec Cowen, Edward Walsh, Adam Jamieson, William Elliot, Eric Johnstone and Aiden Caives are also part of the squad. Five of those seven will be heading to Ireland to compete in the hyper-competitive 2.2-ranked international event. 

Pieter Bulling New Zealand National Team

“The team has been spending time in Sierra Nevada, Spain, in order to prepare for the season. The riders are sue to compete in the first of the under 23 Nations Cup races next week  and will ride the Tour de la Manche in Normandy, France, as part of the An Post Rás build-up. 

“This race is very important to us as it is part of our preparation program for the Pan-American Games to be held in Toronto, Canada, in July,” said Arseneau, who makes clear that it will be a goal in itself. 

“As mentioned already, MacKinnon will more than likely be our leader for this event. He’s progressed a lot and is on the right pathway that we want him to be. He’s raced most of last year in Europe as well as the World Cup track circuit all winter.”

Given that the team has already finished on the podium, they have the experience and ambition to aim very high again in May. 

The New Zealand team will comprise some very strong riders. Marc Ryan, Regan Gough, Alex Frame and Pieter Bulling were members of the team that won the men’s team pursuit at the world track championships in Paris in February 2015, posting a highly impressive time of 3 minutes 54 seconds to beat the Great Britain squad in the final. 

The fifth member of the team will likely be Luke Mudgway, who is a current world junior track champion and who won the madison with Gough in Korea in 2014. 

“The squad for the Ras is a selection from among a wider group of riders who are targeting the 2016 Rio and 2020 Tokyo Olympics Games,” said Stephen Connell, the manager for the An Post Rás squad.

The team will compete in New Zealand and Australia and do specific training camps as part of the build-up. The An Post Rás will be its first stage race in Europe this season and is one it will aim to shine in. 

Marc Ryan New Zealand National Team

““The 2015 route looks interesting,” said Connell. “We will have to see what the competition brings but our goal is to target stage wins and to be competitive in the Rás. 

“Following the Rás, we will be heading back to the base in Oudenaarde, Belgium where we have a few months of racing and specific track work in Europe. The Rás is a very important part of this block.”

The two teams will join the recently-announced squads HrinkowAdvaricsCYcleanG of Austria, Sweden’s Tre Berg – Bianchi, the Australian outfit Subaru Albion, British teams NFTO and JLT Condor plus a number of other strong international outfits which are yet to be announced. 

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.