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| Jacques Janse van Rensburg Trek Marco Polo |
Joining the previously-announced Jaan Kirsipuu, who will compete with the Norwegian Giant Veolia team, another multiple Tour de France stage winner is set to line out in this year’s FBD Insurance RÁS.
Leon Van Bon won Tour stages in 1998 and 2000 and also finished third in the 1997 world road race championships. The powerful Dutch rider will lead the Chinese-registered Trek Marco Polo team in the grueling Irish tour, which begins in just over two weeks time in Kilcullen.
“We expect to bring a young team of riders with Leon van Bon as a mentor,” said team manager Gudo Kramer. “It will be the start of our Euro-campaign, so will be exciting to see where we stand. We bring a pretty complete team to the Ras, with fast finishers and climbers, experience and talent.”
Now 37 years of age, Van Bon is set to be one of the most experienced RÁS competitors to date. In addition to his Tour de France success, the former Dutch champion took that bronze medal in the world road race championships, won stages in the Tours of Spain, Switzerland and Germany, and finished fourth in both the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix. He is also an accomplished track rider, having taken a silver medal in the 1992 Olympic points race. This winter he was second in both the Hasselt and Tilberg Six Day events.
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| Eric van de Meent Trek Marco Polo |
Van Bon is now in his second season with the Trek Marco Polo team, and won stages in the Tour of Thailand and Tour de Kumano in Japan last year. He is helping to shape the young talent there, and will be road captain for the FBD Insurance RÁS squad.
“The mission of our team is to help riders develop, prove their abilities and move up,” said Kramer. “The main goal in the FBD Insurance RÁS will be to learn and gain experience, but this is only valuable if we can compete to win. We’ll aim for stages, side classifications, even the general classification - we’ll take it as it comes.
“The race will be interesting, as most of the days are very well suited for hard racing. Also, no team will be able to control the whole race with just five riders.”
Van Bon is likely to be joined by James Spragg, Eric van de Meent, Jacques Janse van Rensburg and Jaco Venter. Spragg is a 21 year old British rider who recently won a stage in the Tour of Thailand. Van Rensburg (21) is a strong climber and time trialist and finished third overall in last year’s Giro del Capo, while his compatriot Venter recently won the Elite South African time trial championship. At the end of March the 22 year old also took top ten on each of the stages plus fifth overall in the Grand Prix of Portugal, an under 23 Nations Cup event.
The squad is completed by Van de Meent, a 23 year old Dutch rider who was previously sixth in the national under 23 road race championships and who is described by Kramer as a great team rider.
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| James Spragg Trek Marco Polo |
“The lineup of this year’s FBD Insurance RÁS is very exciting,” said race organiser Dermot Dignam this week. “There’s some very promising international and domestic competitors set to take part, but also some big international names such as Leon Van Bon and Jaan Kirspuu, both of whom are multiple stage winners in the Tour de France. They have huge experience and are likely to play an important part in the outcome of this year’s race. I’m confident that a great battle is in store.”
The 2009 FBD Insurance RÁS will begin on Sunday May 17th in Kilcullen and , over the course of eight days, will feature stage finishes in Wexford, Cobh, Cahirciveen, Killorglin, Scariff, Castlebar, Clara and Skerries. The world-ranked contest is 1289 kilometres in length and includes over twenty categorised climbs. Ireland’s Stephen Gallagher triumphed in 2008, the first home victory in four years.
