Sean McKenna, Conor Hennebry and Eddie Dunbar get their season underway tomorrow with a stern test.
Three of Ireland’s best emerging young riders Eddie Dunbar, Conor Hennebry and Sean McKenna get their season underway in Portugal tomorrow.
The trio are taking on the five-day Volta ao Alentejo (UCI 2.1) and will face WorldTour team Movistar.
Hennebry and McKenna will be part of an An Post-Chainreaction team that includes German Jonas Bokeloh, Dutchmen Davy Gunst and Bas Tietema, Pole Premislav Kasperkiewicz, Canadian Adam Jamieson and Britain’s Jacob Scott.
Dunbar lines out for his team Axeon Hagens Berman. For McKenna and Dunbar the event represents the continuation of their tenures with their teams having ridden at this level last year.
However, Hennebry is into a new ballgame as he is new to An Post-Chainreaction this year, having ridden mainly in Ireland and for a period in Belgium last year.
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His facing into a race with WorldTour opposition with stages up to 206km in length it is major event to get started in, though much of the field will be made up of Continental-level teams.
His manager Kurt Bogaerts said the team will do its best in the face of injuries to a number of its riders.
"This is the first year we are attending this race, we hope we can progress from our last race earlier this month in Bességes,” he said.
“We are dealing with injuries from Sean Mackinnon, Dan Gardner and Damien Shaw. I have high expectations for the team and hope we can be in the mix for our first podium of the year.
“The Portuguese teams will be well prepared for this race with Algarve in their legs last week."
The race begins tomorrow with a 158km opening stage from Portalegre to Castelo de Vide followed by the longest stage of 206km from Monforte to Montemore-O-Novo.
On Friday the riders face 187km from Portel to Beja, with 184km from Aljustrel to Grandola before the race concludes with 172km from Santiago Do Cacem to Evora.
The course is undulating throughout, with tomorrow’s opening stage holding five climbs in the last third of the course.
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