Bagdonas sees off some good opposition to take the Lithuanian national title last month
One of An Post-Sean Kelly’s star performers of the past couple of seasons, Gediminas Bagdonas has secured a massive vote of confidence from his home federation with his inclusion in the Lithuanian Olympic team.
Bagdonas most recently won the national road race title for the first time. He also took two stage wins and the points classification in the An Post Ras in May. Other notable victories in the past couple of seasons include outright victory in the 2011 Ras and a stage win in the Tour of Britain, to name but a few.
He is currently at a Lithuanian team altitude camp in Livigno, Italy, in preparation for the road race in London on July 28th. He will return to his team base in Belgium to compete in a small domestic race next Monday, continuing his preparation along with rest of his An Post team mates.
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An Post-Sean Kelly manager, Kurt Bogaerts said he felt Bagdonas was well worth his place in the team for London.
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“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.”
While Bagdonas is riding the Olympics, some of the Irish riders on the An Post-Sean Kelly team will be involved in international duty of their own.
Sam Bennett, Sean Downey and Ronan McLaughlin will compete as part of a six-man Irish national team of U23 and elite riders for a UCI 2.2 Kreiz Breizh three-day stage race in France from July 28th. The race will serve as preparation for the European Championships next month but more importantly will also be used in an attempt get the Irish U23’s enough UCI points to qualify for the U23 World Championships in September.
Recent points gained by Philip Lavery (NODE4-Giordana) in a UCI 1.2 in France will have helped Ireland’s cause but more points will be needed to keep Ireland in the top 26 ranked nations in the UCI U23 European standings. Any ranking lower than 26th for Ireland in those standings on the cut-off date of August 15th will mean Ireland will not qualify a team for the U23 Worlds in Holland.
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