Gediminas Bagdonas of the An Post Sean Kelly team has been selected as part of the Lithuanian National cycling team to compete at the London 2012 Olympics.
Bagdonas will line out for the 250 kilometre Road Race which takes place on the 28th July pitting him against some of the best riders in the world including Mark Cavendish and Bradley Wiggins of Great Britain and Peter Sagan of Slovakia, who has won three stages of the 2012 Tour de France so far.
The Olympic road race course around the North Downs in Surrey will see the riders complete nine challenging laps of the summit at Box Hill and the An Post rider won’t be unfamiliar with the route having competed there in the test event last July.
Bagdonas, who is currently in Livigno, Italy at a high altitude training camp has had a fine season which saw him become the National Champion for the first time and the An Post Sean Kelly team manager Kurt Bogaerts admits he is fully worthy of his place at the Olympics.
“Gediminas has been riding at a high level consistently for the last two years. Once again he has had another superb season, taking some excellent ranking points and winning the National Championship so he fully deserves his place in London.
The Olympics are special for every athlete so it is a great honour for him and a proud moment for us particularly as we are a small team. He will be up against the very best riders in the world but he has proven he is capable of riding at that level time and time again” Bogaerts added.
Bagdonas will return to Belgium to compete in a small domestic race on Monday continuing his preparation along with rest of his An Post team mates. Ronan McLaughlin, Connor McConvey and Mark Christian are the only absentees, instead choosing to undergo their own individual training camps.
The Irish trio of Sam Bennett, Sean Downey and Ronan McLaughlin will compete as part of a six man national team of U23 and Elite riders for a UCI 2.2 Kreiz Breizh three-day stage race in France on the 28th July. The race will serve as preparation for the European Championships next month but will also be utilised in an attempt get the U23’s enough UCI points to qualify for the U23 World Championship.