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Last Updated: 2 Apr 2018 - 8:45:17 PM |
GERMAN AND DUTCH TEAMS ADD TO STRONG INTERNATIONAL LINEUP OF AN POST RAS
By An Post Ras release/Shane Stokes
6 Apr 2012,
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With a month and a half remaining before the start of the 2012 An Post R�s, 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 Pr�nte. 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 K�ln-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 Sch�fer, a multiple regional champion in road race and cyclo cross.
�The goal of the team for An Post R�s is to be aggressive, to put our riders in breakaway groups and to take high placings in at least one stage,� said Sch�fer, 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 R�s 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.
An Post R�s 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.�
Meanwhile, the An Post sponsored Gorey Three Day Cycle Race takes place this Easter weekend.
With over 180 competitors taking part annually, it is the biggest cycling race in Ireland and locals are being encouraged to come out and support the famous contest as it passes through the county. This is An Post�s fourth year as the principal sponsor of the race, which sees many club cyclists competing in a major stage race.
The action begins on Saturday and runs through until Easter Monday with four stages of the race held over the three days. Stage one begins outside St. Kevin�s Hall at 12pm and finishes at the Amber Springs Hotel on the Ballycanew road in Gorey. Stage two and three will both take place on Easter Sunday.
The second stage is an individual Time Trial race commencing at 9am, 6.4kms out on the Enniscorthy road and finishes just outside the Gorey town. The penultimate stage then takes place that afternoon, with a mass start beginning at 2.30pm and raced over four laps of the Craanford, Camolin and Gorey circuit.
The final stage of the race starts at Gorey�s main street at 12pm on Easter Monday. The route travels through Carnew, Shillelagh, Tullow, Rathvilly, Baltinglass and finishes 5 kilometres on the Dublin side of Blessington.
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