An Post’s Downey & McLaughlin braced for tough season opener in France

Posted on: January 28th, 2012 by Editor

Ronan McLaughlin

Ronan McLaughlin will be looking to take another step up in 2012

Sean Downey and Ronan McLaughlin will fly the Irish flag for the An Post-Sean Kelly team in tomorrow’s first race of the new season in France; with Sam Bennett, Mark Cassidy and Connor McConvey opting for slightly later season openers.

The Irish duo of Downey and McLaughlin will line out in the GP d’Ouverture la Marsellaise. They are part of a strong eight-man selection featuring, among others, veteran sprinter Niko Eeckhout, 2011 An Post Ras winner Gediminas Bagdonas and emerging British talent Mark McNally.

It will be Downey’s first race for the Irish-Belgian outfit since signing for them during the winter. However, having been based in the Marseille area in recent years, he will be no stranger to the kind of terrain the riders will make their way over tomorrow.

He told stickybottle he was really looking forward to it.

“It’s has been a long time since I’ve been so excited about racing. Everything is going really well, am loving the team and I’ve got some really good training in. So there’s no excuse now.”

McLaughlin is an old hand at this stage with the An Posts and his most recent visit to the GP d’Ouverture la Marsellaise was twelve months ago when seven of the team’s eight starters missed the time cut needed to be credited with an official finishing position. The eight rider on the day, Philip Lavery was a DNF.

That result from 2011 and the presence in the peloton tomorrow of teams like Cofidis, Europcar, AG2R and FDJ underline the challenge facing the An Posts.

Tomorrow’s assignment is not exactly the most significant race on the French calendar but it will take the riders over some lumpy roads for 148km against some very good teams.

With three categorised climbs, it will not be one for the faint hearted. It will however be interesting to see how the team fairs having arguably made more progress last year than in any season since its inception.

Riders like McNally and Bagdonas won some big races last year and came very close to securing contracts for 2012 with Europcar and GEOX respectively. They will want to make that jump very soon and must show what they can do from the early stages of the season.

Downey, who is also a talented prospect, will obviously be eager to impress in his first race for the team. McLaughlin will be hoping 2012 is the year when very good progression in the past couple of seasons can be taken up a notch to secure the big results he undoubtedly has in his legs.

An Post-Sean Kelly team for GP d’Ouverture la Marsellaise