More information is coming in regarding the 2009 edition of the Tour of Ireland concerning both routes and teams.

The Tour of Ireland route has now been released with three exciting stages taking the racers around the Southern half of the country.  We will be taking in depth views of the individual stages with expected times for each section and good vantage points at a later date but suffice to say that the route gives lots of good vantage points to see the Worlds best in action.

Speaking of which more details have emerged concerning the teams that will take part although rider rosters are still thin.  We already know that Lance Armstrong and Mark Cavendish will definitely be racing along with defending champion Marco Pinotti.  No word yet on whether fellow Columbia rider and 2007 winner Edvald Boassen-Hagen will be lining up yet.  Irish rider Philip Deignan of Cervelo Test Team has been confirmed and David O’Loughlin and Paidi O’Brien of the An Post… team are in a race against time to recover from injuries but hope to start.

Joining the above mentioned teams will be Pro-Tour squads Saxo bank and Rabobank, with the potential to see the likes of the Schleck brothers, Fabian Cancellara, Denis Menchov etc. so the lineup of star riders should increase over the coming days.  We will bring you news as we have it.

The team lineup so far includes the following squads; Columbia HTC, Astana, Saxo Bank, Cervélo Test Team, Rabobank, BMC Racing, ISD Neri, Team Type 1, MTN Energade, Joker Bianchi, Rapha Condor, Halfords Bike Hut, CandiTV Marshall’s Pasta, An Post M. Donnelly Grant Thornton Sean Kelly squad, Irish national team, Australian national team.