Rick Delaney and British national road champion Adam Blythe speak about their big plans for Aqua Blue Sport from the outset.
The man behind Ireland’s new pro cycling team Aqua Blue Sport, Rick Delaney, has said the ProContinental outfit wants to win races from the very start.
“We are an ambitious team and want Aqua Blue Sport to be in with a chance of winning races from the outset,” he said while announcing the latest and final batch of rider signings earlier today.
“We are delighted with the strength in depth of riders that we have assembled," added the Monaco-based Irish businessman who is the main man behind the project.
“And when considered alongside the support system we have put in place around them believe we have the ability to make an impact from the outset in 2017. We are getting very excited about the start of the season.”
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Adam Blythe has already won big races and will hopefully be quick out of the traps next year for Team Aqua Blue Sport.
The team’s chances of winning races have been further added with news that Adam Blythe is joining the from Tinkoff and fellow Briton Andy Fenn has also signed on the dotted line from Team Sky.
The British pair are among five new riders unveiled today, with Larry Warbasse, Mark Christian and Daniel Pearson.
And when one considers that group of five along with the other 11 signings already announced today, Team Aqua Blue Sport has assembled a genuinely strong line-up that can win races.
That is no easy task for a team that is completely new to the sport and so faces the challenge of assuring riders the financial backing and all other components that make up a pro team are in place.
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The other riders already signed are: team leader Lars Petter Nordhaug, Martyn Irvine, Matt Brammeier, Conor Dunne, Stefen Denifl, Leigh Howard, Michel Kreder, Peter Koning, Aaron Gate, Calvin Watson and Lasse Norman Hansen.
British national champion and world class sprinter Blythe was 12th in the elite road race at the World Championships in Doha recently and would have been much closer to the medals had he not been leading out Mark Cavendish who eventually finished 2nd.
Lars Petter Nordhaug, centre in Team Sky kit, sprinting in to win the opening stage of the Tour de Yorkshire last year. He would win the race outright and it is those kinds of performances Aqua Blue Sport is signing him for.
Blythe (26) is not the only ace up Aqua Blue’s sleeve, but when the Cork-based outfit is looking for some really results to steady the ship he may well be the man who will bring success quickest.
And he sounds up for the challenge.
"Signing with Aqua Blue Sport offers me a great opportunity to get the most out of myself in 2017, and to have the support to be able to do that,” he said.
“My goal for next season is to win bike races. It is exciting to get young and hungry guys behind you, and to be on a smaller team where you are all trying to get the most out of each other in every race you are competing in."
American Warbasse (26), who joins from IAM Cycling, also sounded ready to go with his new employers.
“It’s not often you get an opportunity to join a project from the start, especially one as ambitious as this,” he said.
“Each and every member of this project has a unique opportunity, as it is not only on the bike successes that define us.
“I hope to make an impact off the bike as well as on it, in building the future of Aqua Blue Sport.”
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