Matthias Schnapka Germany Bike Aid

Lars Vierbergen Koga Holland

With a month and a half remaining before the start of the 2012 An Post Rás, the Germany Bike Aid cycling team and the Netherlands Koga cycling team have been confirmed as the third and fourth of the international squads for this year’s race.

Both will be making their debuts in the world-ranked event, and are determined to post strong showings in the eight-day race.

The German Bike Aid team will be led by the all-rounder Christian Poth and the sprinter Marius Prünte. The latter won five races last year and clocked up thirty top ten placings; he was also the regional champion of Nordrhein-Westfalen and finished sixteenth in German Road Championship 2011.

Poth is an all-rounder who won the Köln-Schuld-Frechen in 2010. They will be joined by nineteen year old Kai Exner, who in the past finished second and third in the German junior time trial championship, former GP Ostergaaard Lux winner Matthias Schnapka and the climber Timo Schäfer, a multiple regional champion in road race and cyclo cross.

Michael Vingerling Koga Holland

“The goal of the team for An Post Rás is to be aggressive, to put our riders in breakaway groups and to take high placings in at least one stage,” said Schäfer, a rider who also has a role as the team's co-ordinator.

“We already raced the Omloop van het Waasland (UCI) in March as well as Giro del Mendrisiotto, and will ride the Tour de Piemont in France and other UCI races to prepare for the race. The An Post Rás will be one of our main goals for the season.”

The Koga cycling team is yet to be finalized, but its manager Ton Welling said that former world junior scratch race champion Michael Vingerling is likely to take part, then go on to ride track races in the London Olympics. Also tipped to ride are Lars Vierbergen and Jelmer Asjes, winners of eleven races between them last year, and Dutch track omnium champion Roy Eefting.

“I expect the riders to go very well in the race,” said Welling.

Roy Eefting Koga Holland

An Post Rás race director Dermot Dignam is looking forward to seeing what the riders can do. “Both teams will be riding the race for the first time and we anticipate some ambitious, attacking racing from them,” he said. “The Czech Republic AC Sparta Praha and New Zealand teams have already been confirmed, and now with two more strong teams announced, this year’s race is looking like it will be a very good one.”

More international professional and national teams will be announced in the coming weeks. The 2012 An Post Rás will be the sixtieth edition of the country’s toughest cycling race and will be almost 1200 kilometres in length.

It will begin on Sunday May 20th with a stage from Dunboyne to Kilkenny, and will continue with finishes in Gort, Westport, Bundoran, Buncrana, Killybegs, Cootehill and Skerries.