Sean Lacey and Edge Racing team mates dishing it out
After two years in existence, The Edge Racing Team has decided to shed its sponsor and return next season reformed and expanded with two new financial backers.
Rider-manager Tim Barry told stickybottle that while the name and sponsor of the team would change next year, the core of riders will remain the same in 2012.
“We’re effectively coming back next year reformatted,” he said.
“We’re bringing in two new riders who are of a very high calibre and we’ll also have a woman on the team next year; we’re really looking forward to it.”
The team has been sponsored by The Edge triathlon shops for the past two seasons and has become a regular in the winners’ enclosure around the country, taking almost 30 wins.
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However, Barry has had a number of offers from three other title sponsors in recent months. Negotiations with one of these it as an advanced stage and it is also certain the team will ride under its colours next year. Barry is also bringing in at least one secondary sponsor.
“One of them is involved in cycling and the other has nothing to do with the sport,” he said of the two new backers.
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“I can’t say at the moment who they are, but I have things 99 per cent finalised.”
Barry said the new team would continue to focus on races like the An Post Ras, Ras Mumhan, the Tour of Ulster and the national Classic League, if the league is in existence next year.
While The Edge Racing Team has been a small, trade team-style, outfit rather than a club steeped in tradition, Barry believes the riders have gelled and ridden well as a unit.
“Between the riders that we have got, they got seven wins in 2009 before the team was set up but then in 2010 that was up to 14 wins and in the season just gone we got 13 wins. So I think we’ve worked well for each other as a team.”
Team Edge riders have won Ras Mumhan for the past two years – with Barry and Sean Lacey.
It has also won the prestigious Shay Elliott Classic and the Classic League in 2010 (both Sean Lacey), has taken two Munster titles, took the county price in the An Post Ras this year and won the county rider prize on two of eight stages.
The riders rostered this year were: Joe Fenlon, Tim Barry, Niall Brosnan, Séan Lacey, Michael Fitzgerald, Cathal McCarthy and Mikey Reilly. A further two men and one woman will be added for 2012, ready to try and win more races in their new sponsors’ kit.
Timmy Barry enjoys the moment, Minane Bridge Race
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