CYCLING COLUMN: TWICE THIRD in the FBD Insurance Rás, Morten Hegreberg will return to this year's race aiming to finally finish at the top of the podium.
The 30-year-old will lead a strong Norway Sparebanken Vest team in the 2.2-ranked event, which begins in Navan on May 18th and finishes the following Sunday in Skerries.
Both Hegreberg and the team have a strong recent history in the Irish tour. Aside from his high overall placings in 2005 and 2006, he also won stages in both editions of the race.
He was points winner in 2006 and runner-up to Malcolm Elliott one year earlier.
Sparebanken Vest won the team classification in 2006 and were runners-up in 2005.
Another past FBD Insurance Rás competitor is returning, namely Stian Remme.
The 2007 Greenland GP winner will be joined by fellow 25-year-old Håvard Nybø, who is a former Norwegian under-23 national champion.
The team will be completed by two young riders. Twenty-year-old Anders Lund was a winner in the 2006 junior Norwegian team time trial championship, while Sondre Sørtveit is a year younger and was also on that victorious squad.
In other news, Robin Seymour's second place behind British rider Ian Bibby in last Sunday's round three of the K-Capital Cup copperfastened the ticket to his third Olympics.
Seymour ended the three-race qualifying events with a total of 80 points, well clear of the 51 amassed by Niall Davis and Conor McConvey's 35.
Between them, the three riders had secured an Olympic slot for Ireland in the cross-country MTB event. The K-Capital races were used to determine which one of them would get the ticket to Beijing.
Finally, the An Post M Donnelly Grant Thornton Seán Kelly team had a strong showing in the recent Tour of Majorca. Mark Cassidy won the special sprints competition and the squad was fourth in the teams' ranking.
Briton Daniel Lloyd was sixth overall, while Paídi O'Brien was best of the Irish as he finished in 14th overall.
The team will be mainly targeting overseas races this season but will travel back here to target the FBD Insurance Rás, the national road race championships and the Tour of Ireland.
FIXTURES:
Saturday: Tour of Ards Saturday-Sunday: Galway Bay 2 Day
Sunday: Coombes Connor Memorial, Donore. Underage racing at 11am, main event at 1pm. Billy Hyland Memorial, Clonmel. Underage racing at 11.30 am, main event at 1pm. McCann Cup, Carnalea Road. Starts 1pm.
