Rás chief puts the brakes on Italian Olympic team visit

THE organiser of the FBD Insurance Rás has had to turn down a request from the Italian Cycling Federation to have their Olympic track team included in the line-up for this year’s showpiece which gets under way on Sunday week.

Dermot Dignam, who has been sole organiser of the race for almost 30 years, admitted yesterday that he would have loved to have been able to accommodate a team of that calibre but pointed out it was just not possible.

“It is not that we would not have room for them in the peloton he said — we have had up to 200 riders in the past — but I felt that their inclusion would upset the balance of the race,” he said.