Exclusive: Five Irish riders sign for new UCI Continental team for season ahead

Stephen Halpin wins the 2012 Carrick Wheelers Cup; he’s one of five Irish riders in the new team. (Photo: Joe Cashin)

The number of Irish in the international professional peloton has just been increased considerably with news that five riders have signed with a new Irish-registered UCI Continental level team for the season ahead.

The team is called Polygon Sweet Nice and counts among its riders Ryan Sherlock, Stephen Halpin, Daniel Clifford, Mark Dowling and Charles Prendergast.

The team is effectively an Irish-Indonesian project and the Irish riders have signed thanks to introductions made by three-time Olympian David McCann.

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Polygon Sweet Nice is an Indonesian based team in operation since 1999 racing primarily the Asian circuit, Ryan Sherlock told stickybottle.

“We’d been working on putting this together for a while – it had frustrated me that there hasn’t been an Irish Continental team for many years. And when the opportunity arose, I jumped at the chance to help set up the team as an Irish squad. It has been successfully racing the Asian circuit for many years with a great setup in place – I'm really happy we can join into this established team.”
He hoped 2013 would be the first year in a long term development for the squad and give an opportunity for Irish riders to race at a higher level. The team will most likely ride the An Post Rás this year.
Added Sherlock: “Cycling Ireland has been fundamental to getting this off the ground – they made the process as smooth as possible and I would personally like to thank the federation for all their time and assistance.”

When we have more on this we’ll bring it to you; well done lads and good luck with it.