ESTONIA FOR FBD INSURANCE RÁS

Sigvard Kukk

Estonian cycle racing team, Kalev Chocolate Classic Bicycles, is the latest of six professional teams to confirm its participation in the FBD Insurance RÁS 8 day international cycle race, which start’s from Dublin’s GPO in a little over three weeks time. The Estonians now join the Czech Republic, Germany, France, Scotland, Wales and six American teams in providing some of the foreign opposition to the Irish national team and seventeen county teams expected to line up for the gruelling event.

Andri Lebedev

The team will be lead by the very experienced 33 year old Sigvard Kukk who won the first stage of the RÁS in 1998, eventually finishing 6^th overall to Ciaran Power. Kukk represented Estonia in the Athen Olympics. Twenty four year old Mart Ojavee and twenty three year old Andri Lebedev are two of Estonia’s rising young riders, Ojavee being the country’s best track rider over the past three years, while Lebedev was sixth in the World Junior Championship in 2000 and fourth in the Estonian Road Race Championship last year. The other two members of the team are Andrei Mustonen and Mirko Pőldma.

The team’s Directeur Sportif, Andres Lekko, announcing his riders for the big 8 day Irish event said his team is looking forward to the Irish challenge and are well prepared having competed so far this season in top international events such as the Tour de Normandie and Poland’s Szlakiem Grodów Piastowskich.

Photographs courtesy of Team Kalev Chocolate Classic Bicycles