Irish duo Sam Bennett and Ronan McLaughlin, who have only recently returned from the World Championships in Holland, face another tough outing as they line up as part of an eight man An Post Sean Kelly team to take on the Tour de Wallonie –Picarde (1.2 Franco-Belge). The four day stage race will see the team take on many of the world’s top cycling teams including SKY Procycling and Radioshack.
Lithuanian strongman Gediminas Bagdonas is joined by Belgians Pieter Ghyllebert, Kenneth Van Bilsen, Roy Jans and Nils Wytinck, while Mark McNally completes the team which will race through France and Belgium.
Team manager Kurt Bogaerts has set the team a goal of winning a stage of the race, but he is under no illusions as to how difficult this will be, as his An Post side will be the lowest ranked team to start the event.
“We will be racing against a very competitive line up of riders and teams so it will be difficult for us, but the way we have been riding recently will ensure that we have a big chance of making an impact on the race.
I have set the team a goal of winning a stage, so we’ll make sure we are part of the breakaways and then hopefully we will get a little bit of luck along the way” he said.
Bogaerts also commented on his riders’ recent performances at the World Championships, which saw three Bennett, McLaughlin and Sean Downey take part.
“Sam was really unlucky not to finish in the top three in the Under 23 race. I felt he was barged out just before the sprint but he still managed 10th which was an excellent result. I was also very pleased with Sean’s (Downey) performances in that race and the time trial.
With Ronan, I was a little disappointed that the team’s tactics didn’t allow him to go out in the first breakaway. He proved at the Tour of Britain he has the legs and is more than capable so it would have been nice to see him go out with the early break, still he had a great race.”