|
|
|
Last Updated: 2 Apr 2018 - 8:45:17 PM |
SEAN KELLY AND MURPHY AND GUNN MERGER TO GO AHEAD
By Shane Stokes
28 Oct 2006,
|
Email this article
|
In 2006 Ireland had two Continental teams racing, but next season the Sean Kelly M. Donnelly and Murphy and Gunn/Newlyn Group squads will merge. Team manager Kurt Bogaerts spoke to Irishcycling.com this week and gave details of the amalgamation, which he expects will bring greater success in 2007.
Irishcycling.com: Can you update me as to the situation with the team and Murphy and Gunn?
Kurt Bogaerts: Well, there is not much we can say at the moment. We will join together, for sure, and maybe try to get another sponsor involved.
IC: Who will be the backers?
KB: Murphy and Gunn/Newlyn Group and M. Donnelly. Perhaps there is also the possibility of an extra sponsor, so we will see.
As regards the situation for next year, we will start talking with the riders next Thursday. We will invite the riders to Dublin and see who can join with the team from the Irish side. I think there will be eight or nine, a maximum 10 Irish guys who will be riding for the team. And then there will also be young foreign riders, not only from Belgium but other nationalities as well.
It is not 100% clear that the moment, as regards the contracts, but we are going to finalise that in the next few weeks. There are a lot of riders interested in the team and we will try to pick the best riders for next year.
IC: Will there be riders from the existing team staying on, guys like Paídi [O’Brien], for example?
KB: Yes, that is the goal. We had a conversation with Paídi and it looks good, and so too Mark Cassidy and Tim Cassidy. Then we will also try to keep a few riders from the side of Murphy and Gunn. The main thing to consider is that it is a new team joining, but it is also new start for the two teams. It is a combined team. It is important that we take a new road, it will be the Continental team of Ireland and we'll try to put the best Irish guys in that are available.
IC: What do you want to improve upon this year - is there anything that you will do differently next season?
KB: I hope to start like we ended this year. In the last two months we had a top 10 in a 1.1 ranked race [O’Brien was 7th in the Grand Prix d'Overijse on August 23rd.] I hope to see these kinds of results more often, and from the beginning of the season. Besides the Irish guys, I hope that the foreign riders also perform in the way that we expect from them, so we can make an extra step.
We want to be more competitive. If you look at this year, July, August and September was really good for a young Continental team. There was not one race where we had problems. We were always in the race, and we came home sometimes with a result.
That is what I hope and that is also what Sean hopes, that we are going well from the start of the season.
IC: I presume the team will remain based out of the Academy in Belgium?
KB: Yes, that is the case.
IC: With Murphy and Gunn getting involved, does that mean there will be an increase in budget?
KB: Yes, I think there will be a small increase. We are not there yet, because from the Belgian side we will lose one sponsor, ACLVB. That was there mainly because there were Belgian guys on the team, but we have to focus on the goal of Irish guys… it was a bit too complicated. This way should be a step forward.
IC: When do you expect to have plans finalised, as regards riders?
KB: I would like to finalise things with the riders in the next 2, 3 weeks. I would like to have 70% of the team them. We won't fill the team up, we will start with 12 or 13 riders and keep three spaces open, like this year.
IC: When will the launch take place?
KB: The launch will be at the end of January or the beginning of February, most likely in the Murphy and Gunn garage. I think they [Murphy and Gunn] are going to keep an amateur team in Ireland, too.
Overall I think this is a good step. I think it was a bit too much to have two Continental teams, definitely in the beginning, but this should work well.
----------
IrishCycling.com will bring you more details when they are available.
|
|
|
|
