Deignan and O'Grady confirmed for Tour of Ireland

Cervélo Test Team confirmed Donegal’s Philip Deignan in the seven man team travelling to the Tour of Ireland 21st to 23rd August. The 25-year-old from Letterkenny is a talented climber with two top 10 finishes in stages of the Vuelta España. He rode the Giro d’Italia for the second time this year. Deignan is joined by Dan Fleeman, Daniel Lloyd, Roger Hammond, Martin Reimer, Jeremy Hunt and Davide Appollonio. Hunt showed his form last week when he took his first win of the season in stage four of the Tour of Denmark with Hammond finishing on the podium with third place overall.

Stuart O’Grady will lead a strong Saxo Bank team confirmed today which includes this year’s Tour of Denmark winner Jakob Fugslang. 35-year-old O’Grady is one of the best Australian cyclists of all time with a lengthy list of big victories which includes Paris-Roubaix in 2007 and the Olympic gold medal in the men’s Madison in 2004. He wore the yellow jersey in the Tour de France for three days in 1998, six days in 2001 and he has finished second in the green jersey competition on four occasions. Jonathan Bellis, Karsten Kroon, Kurt Asle Avesen, Alexander Kolobnev and Matti Breschel complete the line up. Breschel has already tasted success in Ireland when he won stage two into Killarney in 2007. He won the bronze medal in the World Road Race Championships in Italy in 2008.