2004 Olympic team pursuit champion Luke Roberts is one of five strong riders who have been confirmed as representing the Germany Kuota-Indeland team in next month’s FBD Insurance Rás.

Dennis Pohl, Kuota Indeland Germany

The Australian is a hugely experienced track competitor, having also won several world championships plus a Commonwealth Games title in that discipline.

32 year old Roberts has also had a strong career on the road, riding with the top-ranked Team CSC for three seasons. He has taken individual stages in the Drei Länder Tour, the Giro del Capo, Rheinland-Pfalz Rundfahrt and the Tour of Normandie and, together with his CSC squad, won team time trials in the Eindhoven ProTour event plus the Tour of the Mediterranean.

In 2007 he was runner-up on stage two of the Tour of Britain and finished third overall, while two years earlier he was seventh on a stage of the Tour de France. He is likely to be one of the strongest competitors in this year’s event and will be closely watched by the other teams.

Roberts will be joined by German riders Björn Glasner, Dennis Pohl, Stefan Ganser and Alexander Gottfried in the eight-day Irish Tour, which begins in Kilcullen on May 17th.

Bjorn Glasner, Kuota Indeland Germany

Glasner (35) is described by the team as their likely general classification rider for the race. Two years ago he won two stages plus the overall classification in the Tour of East Java in Indonesia, while last season he nabbed the fifth stage of the Tour of Thailand. Also likely to be a contender is Gottfried (23), a climber who has just spent two seasons competing for the Tinkoff Credit Systems team. He is a past winner of stages in the Tour de l’Avenir and the Giro delle Regione

The line-up is completed by the team’s two designated sprinters, Stefan Ganser (29) and Dennis Pohl (22). The latter showed strong form earlier this season when he finished seventh in the 1.1-ranked Nokere Koerse.

“Our goal is to have one rider in the final top five of the general classification, and hopefully to win a stage,” said Kuota-Indeland manager Markus Ganser.

Stefan Ganser ,Kuota Indeland Germany

An earlier version of the team titled Germany Comnet Senges previously competed in the FBD Insurance Rás. Five years ago it took a stage win, the under 23 general classification plus sixth place overall courtesy of Stefan Cohnen.

Cohnen has since moved on to another squad but given the strong line-up announced, it’s likely that the German team will once again play a big part in the outcome of the race.

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.

More news is expected soon on some of the other strong teams that will be taking part.