With less than two months to go until the start of the race, the first team has been announced for the FBD Insurance Rás.
The strong Danish Continental (pro) squad Designa Křkken is heading to Ireland prior to the May 17th beginning of the race, and is expected to play a big part in the outcome of the event.
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| Jimmi Sorensen |
Mads Christensen (24) is one of the big guns on the Danish Designa Křkken squad, and will chase success in Ireland four years after he finished third behind Kanstantsin Siutsou (Belarus) and Thomas Dekker (Netherlands) in the world under 23 championship in Verona.
The other two riders have gone on to top pro careers with Team Columbia and Silence Lotto respectively; however, following seasons with the Quick Step and Barloworld squads, Christensen stopped cycling in mid-2007 and took a year off. He returned, remotivated, in 2008 and won two stages plus the overall classification of the U6 Cycle Tour Tidaholm in Sweden.
Also likely to be on the five-man squad are Jimmi Sřrensen and Laurent Didier. Sřrensen is an 18 year old who comes from Herning, the same town as Bjarne Riis, and who won the Danish junior time trial championship last year.
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| Laurent Didier |
Didier (24) was a stagiaire for Riis’ CSC-Saxo Bank team last autumn and is one of the most promising young riders from Luxembourg. In 2007 he finished third in the national time trial championships (Andy Schleck was second, several weeks after being runner-up in the Tour of Italy), while in 2005 he won the under 23 TT title plus a stage in the Fleche du Sud.
The team’s international co-ordinator Thierry Muraour said that the team will head to Ireland determined to leave their mark on the 2.2 ranked International race. “They want to win, of course!” he said. “The Vikings have a long tradition for being strong in foreign territories. So watch out and be aware of them….”
The 2009 FBD Insurance Rás will begin in Kilcullen on May 17th and run for eight days. The world-ranked contest will be 1289 kilometres in length, includes over twenty categorised climbs, and features stage finishes in Wexford, Cobh, Cahirciveen, Killorglin, Scariff, Castlebar, Clara and Skerries.
Strong teams are expected from across the globe. More details of these will be released in the coming weeks.
For further details: Dermot Dignam 087 2459562
or
Sally Ryan 01- 6496416
