Lavery on track for An Post Sean Kelly contract

An Post Sean Kelly team manager Kurt Bogaerts has indicated that Philip Lavery is likely to be the team’s next big signing if his goals align with those of the team for the 2011 season.

Bogaerts told Irish Pro Cycling that he was impressed by Lavery’s performances during his trial with the team and that he is interested in signing the 19 year old to strengthen the team.

“We hope to sign some more new riders into the team and Philip is one of the guys we are hoping to sign. He did a good stagiaire with us so we will have some more discussions when he comes back from the Commonwealth Games,” Bogaerts said.

“For now we need to go through everything and see what goals he has and to see what goals the team have so that we can we work together,” he added.

Bogaerts explained that he is working to build a stronger team for 2011 and he believes that there could be room for Lavery in the set up which has already been enhanced by this week’s signing of U.23 National Road Race Champion Sam Bennett.

“I wanted to let him concentrate on the Commonwealth Games and did not want to put any pressure on him. We will talk more after the Games and see where that ends up. He did some good performances with us and he handled the level quite well,” Bogaerts continued.

Lavery was offered his trial with the An Post Sean Kelly team on the back of two stage wins and overall victory in the Tour of the North, victory in the Elite U.23 Kruiseke Wevrik in Belgium and an impressive second place in the Lincoln Grand Prix.

His nous for identifying the right break and his consistency throughout last month’s Tour of Britain ensured that he finished the race 24th behind Michael Albasini (HTC Columbia) as the best placed Irishman and the best placed rider on the An Post Sean Kelly Team.

His talent was evident once again this week when he joined Martyn Irvine, Sean Downey and David McCann in winning a bronze medal in the team pursuit at the Commonwealth Games after the Northern Ireland team made history by lining out for  the event for the first time.

Securing a place on the team would be a big step forward for the teenager who is not alone among the riders on the An Post Sean Kelly Team roster in recognising the opportunity that riding for the team presents to develop and progress their cycling careers.

The team played a huge part in helping Matt Brammeier to rebuild his career after injury and to win this year’s Irish National Road Race Champoinships and they were delighted to see him sign for HTC-Columbia this week.

“We’re really happy to see guys move up from our team to one of the best teams in the world. Matt was Irish National Champion which meant a lot for us and our sponsors but we got the credit for that this year and we are happy that he has made the step up to Pro Tour,” Bogaerts said.

“As long as we work with this kind of team on a continental base we can succeed. The major objective of our team is to bring young Irish riders to a higher level. We have done that with Brammeier and also with Dan Fleeman before him and we hope next year to have two riders ready to follow on,” he added.

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