Rasmus Guldhammer, Bluewater Cycling, Denmark

Following on from a successful debut campaign in 2012 when it picked up two stage wins plus second in the best young rider classification, the Denmark Blue Water Cycling team will return to this year’s An Post Rás with big ambitions.

According to Jacob Nielsen, who was second on stage one last year, the team is determined to perform at least as well as it did last May, if not to improve on that.

“As this is our second year at the Rás we know what to expect. In 2012 we won two stages and we are coming to Ireland in May to win stages and do well in the overall,” he said, confirming the team’s attendance and goals.

Last time round Mark Sehested Pedersen won stage four to Bundoran, then Lasse Norman Hansen followed that up three days later with victory into Cootehill. Norman Hansen finished second in the Irish Sports Council Under 23 classification, and later went on to win the Omnium title in the London Olympics.

Morten Ollegaard, Bluewater Cycling, Denmark

While neither rider are scheduled to take part this time round, the team has an extremely solid lineup in place. Nielsen (35) will be back and as a former world junior road race silver medallist and the 2009 winner of the UCI-ranked GP Copenhagen, he is capable of big performances.

The other four riders include former HTC Highroad professional Rasmus Guldhammer (24), who finished fourth overall in the 2.HC-ranked Tour of Denmark in 2009, plus the 2011 Tour of Norway runner-up Daniel Foder (29).

The team will likely be completed by the 25 year olds Soren Pugdahl, runner up in the 2009 GP Copenhagen, plus Morten Ollegaard, who clocked up six wins last year.

Nielsen said that the team will seek to exploit its strength in depth. “We have no set leader as all the riders are able to do well, so we will se how things go,” he said.

Daniel Foder, Bluewater Cycling, Denmark

An Post Rás race director Tony Campbell was impressed by the team last year and knows they should again be one of the strongest international squads. “With two stage wins in 2012, the team performed very strongly,” he said. “Now that they have the benefit of riding the race before, we believe the Denmark Blue Water team could be even better again. We look forward to seeing them in action.”

The squad will do four 1.2-ranked UCI races in Denmark in April, namely the GP Herning, the GP Skive, the GP Himmerland and the GP Thy.

Those races will be followed up by two identically-ranked events in Norway in early May, the GP Hadeland and the GP Ringerike.

The 2013 An Post Rás will begin in Dunboyne on Sunday 19th May, the fourth consecutive year it has started there. It will then move counter-clockwise around the country, and includes stage finishes in Longford, Nenagh, Listowel, Killarney, Glengarriff, Mitchelstown, Carlow and Naas, before concluding on Sunday 26th May with the customary finale in Skerries, North County Dublin.

The race will feature 33 categorised climbs, of which four are category one mountains and twelve are category two ascents.