Current FBD INSURANCE RÁS King of the Mountains Champion, Briton Mark Lovatt, will lead a powerful Doncaster Stena Line team in next month’s FBD Insurance RÁS, which starts from Dublin on the 21^st and finishes in Skerries on Sunday 28^th May. Lovatt is joined by three other seasoned campaigners, Wayne Randle, John Tanner and Gavin Evans, while up and coming young rider, Ashley Brown, has the potential to

Mark Lovatt winner of the Mountains Competition 2005

outshine his more illustrious compatriots.

If experience is anything to go by this will be the most formidable squad in the race. When Lovatt last teamed up with Randle and Tanner in the 2000 RÁS they took three of the top ten places on overall classification. Randle finished second overall to Julian Winn followed by Lovatt at 13 seconds with Tanner filling 10^th place who also won stage 5 to Enniscorthy.

Stena Line has a long association with the FBD RÁS and is the official maritime carrier for the world-ranked 8 day race, being responsible each year for the massive task of bringing teams from Scandinavia, Britain and continental Europe. Mr. Eamonn Hewitt Communications & PR Manager for Stena Line’s Irish Sea Organisation said “Stena Line is delighted to support the FBD Insurance RÁS again this year.  The Company has a relationship that goes back many years not only with this great event but with Cycling Ireland also. We had the privilege of moving the Tour de France into and out of Ireland in 1998 and can appreciate the organisational complexity of an event such as the FBD Insurance RÁS, so we congratulate Dermot Dignam and his hard working team on their sterling efforts over the years. We are particularly delighted to have such strong riders as Tanner, Lovatt and Randle on the Stena team and look forward to them competing for overall honours”.