Ben Walsh has signed for EvoPro Racing and will ride his third season as an U23 with the Irish Continental team.
The Junior Tour of Ireland winner three years ago; Walsh joins first-year U23 Seán Nolan in signing for the team for the 2020 campaign.
Aaron Kearney, who rode for the Irish outfit last year, also returns to the fold for the season ahead, making it three Irishmen in the set-up.
Matt Teggart, Mark Downey, Daire Feeley and Cormac
Mcgeough were all on the team last year but will ride elsewhere this season.
While Kearney is returning for another, so too are four
others were part of the squad for its first season last year; Cyrus Monk,
Wouter Wippert, Daniel Whitehouse and Peter Koning, who was a mid-season
transfer last year.
Advertisement
Team owners Morgan Fox and PJ Nolan have reduced the number of riders for 2020 and the team will only have one line-up on the road at any one time this year.
However, that decision to scale back a little has not
stopped them signing new names from around the world.
Coming into the set-up for this year is Vitor Zucco Schizzi, the 22-year-old Brazilian road race champion who has ridden the junior and U23 Worlds.
Related News
Oskar Nisu also comes into the team; a 25-year Estonia
who has twice won bronze in his national TT championships. He rode for the
Chinese Kunbao Sport Continental team last year.
Spanish rider Bernat Font Mas has also signed up, the
25-year-old having ridden for most of the past two seasons in the US with the 303Project
Continental team.
Wippert won two stages at the Belgrade Banjaluka (2.1)
stage race last year and took a stage at the Tour of Hungary.
The team will look to him to take more victories in the
year ahead. However, the young Irish riders will also look to make an
impression while Whitehouse, Monk and Koning can also take wins.
The new signings are more of an unknown quantity but they have international experience that can stand them in good stead in Europe in coming months.
Ben Walsh enjoyed significant success as a junior before riding for Vitus Pro Cycling in the UK in his first year at U23 level in 2018.
Last year he based himself in France, competing in the colours of GSC Blagnac VS31 in France.
His best result came when he finished 3rd on the stage 3 TT of the Tour du Loiret, a national elite stage race in May.
Topics
