The Tour of Ireland organisers have confirmed the final three teams for the forthcoming Tour of Ireland 27th to 31st August 2008.

The Rabobank name will be familiar to many cycling fans as the team from the Netherlands with many great riders over the years; Adrie van der Poel, Erik Breukink, Rolf Sorensen, Erik Dekker and Johan Bruyneel. Boy Van Poppel returns to Ireland for the second time. The son of legendary sprinter Jean Paul van Poppel is still only 20-years-old but has already been crowned world champion at the world junior cyclo-cross championships in 2006. He finished fourth on the final stage into Dublin on the Irish Tour last year and showed good form when he helped his team to third place in the team time trial in the Settimana Ciclista Lombarda stage race in Italy earlier this year.

Thomas Berkhout came close to a stage win last year when he finished second in Dublin and the 23-year-old has already shown that he can challenge for overall victory too when he finished second in the Tour of Normandy earlier this year. Berkhout’s career successes include winning the Ronde van Vlaams-Brabant and finishing second in the under 23 edition of the Tour of Flanders in 2005. Thomas Rabou will know all about the Kerry roads after he won stage one of the Rás Mumhan into Killarney back in 2006 when he also won the Tour of Siam in the same year.

TopSport – Vlaanderen is sending a talented team over from Belgium. The former Chocolade Jacques squad has had a number of good results this year including 5th place for Kenny Dehaes in the early season classic Ghent-Wevelgen race. More recently Dehaes finished second in stage four of the Tour of Denmark behind top Argentinean sprinter Ruben Bongiorno (CSF Group – Navigare). The team line up includes Nikolas Maes and Frederiek Nolf who are certain to look for stage wins.

Pinarello – CandiTV is a small but powerful team that has recorded domestic and international success this year. Russell Downing will lead the UK team full of confidence after he convincingly won the East Yorkshire Classic road race last weekend. His win also gave him victory overall in the season long British Premier Calendar series, with two races still remaining. The former British road race champion will arrive in Dublin Docklands for the start in Grand Canal Square on August 27th alongside veteran professional Malcolm Elliott who returns to Ireland 20 years after winning two stages of the Nissan Classic (Boyle and Limerick) in 1988. He also finished second that year in the general classification one place behind Rolf Golz and one place ahead of legendary sprinter Sean Kelly. The amazing 47-year-old from Sheffield also won a stage of the Vuelta España that year and finished fourth on the Champs-Élysées in Paris in the final stage of the Tour de France.

“Stephen Roche and Sean Kelly were household names when I rode the Nissan Classic back in the eighties,” said Elliott: “The public support for them was absolutely crazy. It was incredible going up St Patrick’s Hill in Cork. I remember feeling how close the crowd was to us and the noise was unbelievable. Obviously it is 20 years since I last raced there and it is going to be extremely tough this time round. I am definitely under no illusions. It will be great if we can capture some of that atmosphere again.”

The rest of the team list is likely to include former Irish international Andrew Roche and promising youngsters Freddie Johansson, Peter Williams and Thomas Murray.

Tour of Ireland – In association with Fáilte Ireland

Stage 1: Dublin to Waterford, 192km – Wednesday 27th August
Stage 2: Thurles to Loughrea, 158km – Thursday 28th August
Stage 3: Ballinrobe – Galway, 201km – Friday 29th August
Stage 4: Limerick to Dingle, 186km – Saturday 30th August
Stage 5: Killarney to Cork, 155km – Sunday 31st August

TopSport – Vlaanderen

COENEN Johan, DEHAES Kenny, HOVELIJNCK Kurt,
MAES Nikolas, NEYENS Maarten, NOLF Frederiek, RENDERS Sven

Rabobank

AERNOUTS Bart, BEIMA Marcel, BERKHOUT Thomas, VAN POPPEL Boy
POPOV Evengel, RABOU Thomas, VAN STAEYEN Michael