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Last Updated: 2 Apr 2018 - 8:45:17 PM |
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| Gearoid Costelloe, Ciaran Power and Robin Seymour |
Cycling Ireland has received a significant boost with the news that national squads will be backed by Grant Thornton until the end of the season. The organisation provided sponsorship to Team Ireland squads in the past and will be supporting riders in a number of big events, including the European championships this weekend and the Olympic Games later this month. The world road race championships in Verona will also be a big target for the Team Ireland riders.
The full press release is as follows:
MAJOR BOOST FOR IRISH TEAM BEFORE OLYMPICS
~ Tour de France cyclist Mark Scanlon heading to Olympics
~ Nicholas Roche, son of Stephen Roche, a good prospect for Worlds
Grant Thornton, one of Ireland’s leading accounting and business advisory firms, has announced the sponsorship of Cycling Ireland’s teams to the end of the 2004 season.
Over the next few weeks Grant Thornton Team Ireland will be participating in the Olympic Games and the World and European Championships in both road racing and mountain biking with high hopes for medal winning performances.
The first big test for Ireland’s Olympic team will start on August 14th in Athens with the Olympic Road Race where Ciaran Power and Mark Scanlon, who has just completed the Tour de France, will compete. Ireland’s mountain bikers go into action in the women’s event where Jenny McCauley competes in her first Olympics and in the men’s cross country race where Sydney Olympian Robin Seymour is hoping for a top twenty finish.
The other main events where Ireland hope to do well are the under 23 European Championships due to take place in Estonia in August and the World Road Championships scheduled for Italy in September where currently ranked World number two Philip Deignan is entered, his team mates Tim Cassidy, Nicholas Roche (son of Tour de France winner Stephen Roche) and Paidi O’Brien are all seasoned campaigners and any one of them could bring back a medal for Ireland.
The Mountain Bike World Championships in France could be very successful for Ireland with Juniors Ben Reid and Jamie Popham likely contenders for podium places in the Downhill race.
Gearoid Costelloe, Partner with Grant Thornton said, “We are once again delighted to sponsor Team Ireland since a lot of the riders on this team were also part of the team sponsored by us some years ago – we feel this contributed to their long term success and aim to become professional cyclists.”
Gearoid is himself a former international cyclist who represented Ireland on twenty occasions.
Cycling Ireland President PJ Nolan said “Grant Thornton’s support means that we can send well prepared teams to these events. Grant Thornton have been a long time supporter of Irish cycling and the support they have given us has already helped Mark Scanlon and Philip Deignan to professional careers with more of the very promising young riders ready to follow in their footsteps. This support for young athletes is the key to long term success and reflects the support that Grant Thornton give to their partners in business. Thanks to Gearoid and his team in Grant Thornton for making this possible and we hope we can reward them with the performances this support deserves.
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