Team DMG Visit Nenagh has secured its future with an extension of its sponsorship deal (Photo: Brendan Slattery)
Team DMG Visit Nenagh has secured its financial future for 2013, with news that the Visit Nenagh local tourism initiative in Co Tipperary has extended its deal with the squad.
Team director Rene Van Dam said he was delighted with the news, which he was expecting given the publicity the sponsor got from its association with the squad in 2012.
“Negotiations for next year were fairly easy after the massive success of the Visit Nenagh Classic,” he said of the major race put on by the team in and around Nenagh in April.
“We had a lot of positive coverage of the brand name Visit Nenagh during the season, with a lot of attention from TV, radio and other media throughout the past year.”
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Van Dam said the ability of the team to close roads in and around Nenagh for the Classic programme of events, and create a festival that coincided with it, was a big move that created a clear focal point the sponsor could be happy with.
“It was important for me to have the race finishing in the town centre, just the way it should be,” said the Dutchman.
“I was used to that when I was racing abroad in my younger years. It was kinda normal for me to race on closed road street circuits. It took me a while to get used to most Irish races. With the exception of the An Post Rás and the Nationals, the races are hidden from the general public.”
“And we thought in Nenagh it was time to change that and hopefully to set a benchmark for other organisers. The fact we were also able to create a festival atmosphere in the town for the race has proven that point”
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Van Dam said with the races having been a great success he is now hoping to add to the events next year by inviting some foreign teams with a view to making it the biggest set of one day races on the domestic calendar.
He started the squad three years ago with Michael Butler. Their teaming up with former Mayor of Nenagh Cllr Virginia O’Dowd helped them secure the sponsorship from Visit Nenagh.
The project is a local tourism initiative run by the Mayor of Nenagh’s office, Nenagh Town Council and North Tipperary County Council.
Butler said the team has big plans for 2013 and while he was happy with the results in the early part of the 2012 season, he would have hoped for a bit more good fortune at other times.
“We had a good start to the season, a few podium placings and the victory courtesy of Richard Hooton in Currow was great,” he said.
“But then towards the Rás we got hit with injuries and during that race we didn’t have the best of luck. We had a few crashes that dashed all our chances to battle for a county team prize.”
“But for us it was most important to have the first ever team registered from North Tipperary in the Rás. And we’ll be back in the Rás next year to fight for a county rider prize. We set out to be a development squad, and besides the elite squad we also hope to be able to get a few local riders to a higher level.”
Ryan Mullen wins the support race to the main A1-A2 Visit Nenagh Classic in April (Photo: Barry Sutton www.irishcyclingphotos.com)
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