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Australian National Team And Danish Riwal Platform Squad For An Post Rás
Apr 1, 2016, 06:01
Following on from last week’s announcement of the first two teams to be announced for this year’s An Post Rás, the Australian Continental squad Cisco RT and the American CCB International squad, two more international outfits have confirmed their participation.
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| Lucas Hamilton Australia |
The UCI world-ranked race will include the Australian national team and the UCI Continental-level Riwal Platform squad from Denmark. Both will travel prior to the start of the gruelling eight day event, which rolls out of Dublin castle on Sunday, May 22nd.
The Australian national selection will be finalised in the run up to the event, but at this point in time Cycling Australia’s Under 23 Men’s National Road Coach James Victor has named the most likely riders to take four out of the available five slots.
These include Alistair Donohoe, who is a past world road and track paracyclist. The 20 year -old has limited use in his right arm, leading to him to compete in the C5 paracycling category, but he also races strongly in regular cycling events. He was part of the Australian team in the under 23 road race at cycling’s World Road Race Championships in Richmond in September 2015.
Donohoe is in his first year racing with the Australian Under 23 National Team in Europe. This is also the case with the other three riders who are provisionally named for An Post Rás, 19 year-old duo Daniel Fitter and Lucas Hamilton, plus 18 year-old Michael Storer.
Fitter is a track endurance and road race rider and according to Victor he should be well suited to the An Post Rás course. Hamilton is a strong climber who represented the country in the 2014 Junior World Road Race Championships, while Storer also competed in those championships, finishing a superb third in the time trial. He was also the Best Young Rider in this year’s 1.1-ranked Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race.
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| Rasmus Mygind Denmark |
“We don’t have a clear leader for now, with all of the team new to European racing,” states Victor. “For An Post Rás we will target some stage results as a priority and work through the week towards our best chance overall. This is a very young group, but they are full of determination and love to race hard.”
They will ride the Under 23 Nations Cup races in April and then, after competing in the Tour de Bretagne in France between April 25 and May 1, will ride several 1.2-ranked races in Belgium in early May prior to travelling to An Post Rás.
Denmark Riwal Platform will also have a busy schedule in the run up to the Irish event and should be in sparkling form. Those races will include the Tour de Loir et Cher E Prevost, the Ringerike GP and the Fleche du Sud.
As is the case with the Australian National Team, the final selection will be made in May, however team manager Mogens Kristensen has announced a provisional line-up of five very strong riders.
These include two who have raced at the WorldTour level as part of Team Saxo Bank – Tinkoff - Jonas Aaen Jørgensen and Troels Vinther. The former competed in the Vuelta a España in 2011 and the Giro d’Italia the following season. He won five UCI races in 2009 and in 2014 was victorious in the Scandinavian Race.
Vinther won stages in the 2011 and 2014 Circuit des Ardennes International and also a stage in the 2014 Tour du Loir et Cher E Provost, where he was also third overall.
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| Nicolai Brochner Denmark |
Patrick Clausen is a sprinter who took UCI victories in 2012 and 2013, while Nicolai Brøchner is also a very fast finisher. The fifth rider named to the team is Rasmus Mygind, who finished second last week in the mountains classification in the Tour de Normandie and was runner-up in the 2014 Tour Loir de Cher E Provost.
“This year our general goal is to be the best Scandinavian Continental Team,” states Kristensen. “In An Post Rás we will try to win the general classification with Vinther and Aaen, and go for stages with Clausen and Brøchner.”
An Post Rás, Race Director Tony Campbell welcomes the strong selections. “Both teams have very promising riders with some impressive past results. Together with the teams announced last week and those to come, they will add greatly to the quality of this year’s race.”
This year’s An Post Rás will total almost 1240 kilometres, and will include 25 categorised climbs. The race will roll out from Dublin Castle on Sunday May 22nd, with the venue chosen to mark the 2016 Easter Rising commemorations.
The world-ranked event will feature stage finishes in Multyfarnham, Charleville, Dingle, Sneem, Clonakilty, Dungarvan, Baltinglass and Skerries.
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