Welcome to the Headquarters of Barry's Maple Leaf Racing. We are a Continental Team that is the premier Irish Professional Cycling Team. As garnered by our headline sponsorship by one of the countries biggest export, Barry's Tea:
Barry's Maple Leaf Racing has been set up and owned by the Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment Ltd. group. This adds to their stable of professional sports teams that include major North American franchises, the Toronto Maple Leafs (NHL), Toronto Raptors (NBA) & Toronto FC (MLS).
As a result, we also hope to have a Canadian flavour as well as our Irish Core.
A Press release from Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment Ltd. has announced that Barry's Maple Leaf Racing are looking for a World Tour place.
High ranking people within the Maple Leaf organisation have been quoted talking about the positives to cycling that the team being in the World Tour can provide.
Quotes included one from Larry Tennenbaum stating: 'Canada has never had a top tier cycling team and awarding us World Tour status would do wonders for Cycling both competitively and recreationally in this country.'
Meanwhile, the presentation of the application to league officials was made by Stephen Roche and Sean Kelly, seen above at the height of their careers. both of whom made statements spotlighting the need for an Irish based team. Kelly was especially adament, stating:
"I believe Ireland, through myself and Stephen, has a great history in Cycling and deserves a World Tour team. We are the only country with a Tour de France winner to never have had a Pro team at the top table of world cycling."
Former Irish national champion Cyclist and now outspoken journalist, Paul Kimmage echoed those sentiments, saying that if neither Barry's Tea, nor Magners achieved World Tour status that it would be a 'disgrace' and he would consider legal action on both those teams behalf's.
There were mass celebrations in both Toronto and Dublin yesterday as Barry's Maple Leaf Racing was awarded World Tour status.
About 250 Canadian cycling fans gathered outside the Rogers Centre for the announcement and when the team became announced as a WT team there were scenes of confetti and impromptu chants of 'We Want Hesjedal', making it quite clear who they want to see as the teams first signing.
Meanwhile, with three horses to back. Well over 1,500 Irish fans packed the main square in Dublin hoping at least one of the teams were chosen. There was mass cheering when Barry's were announced as a successful bid with another, more sedate, roar going up when Tulip-Guinness were also announced, sparking a mass party in Dublin.
Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment Ltd. unveiled their first two riders for the Barry's Pro Cycling racing team.
Ireland's Dan Martin and Canada's Ryder Hesjedal, seen above joking about in their Garmin days, fit perfectly with the teams Irish-Canadian ethos.
Martin, 25 at the start of the 2012 season, was actually born in Birmingham, England and won the British amateur Road Race title before switching nationalities to his Irish routes, his uncle is former Tour De France winner, Stephen Roche, and the climber, who won Stage 9 in the 2011 Vuelta, will look to push on as the head of the Irish arm of the team and from his position of 9th in the 2011 UCI World Tour rankings.
Hesjedal is the big Canadian name in Pro Cycling and while the squad has only signed the British Columbian, who has finished 6th & 18th in the last two Tour De France's, to a 1 year contract, it is hoped that the lure of leading an Irish-Canadian team with his friend and colleague, Dan Martin, will convince him to stay.
Barry's Maple Leaf signed another young North American stage race rider as they added American, Andrew Talansky.
Talansky first burst onto the seen by winning the under-23 American Time Trial Championship in 2010. He backed that up in 2011 by finishing 4th in the Mediterranean Tour and 9th in the Tour de Romandie, winning the young riders jersey in the later, proving he has the potential to be an all-round stage rider.
The big thing from Barry's point of view is that they were able to sign Talansky to a long-term, 3-year deal, securing the American throughout his development.
Meanwhile they also added Eritrean fighter, Daniel Teklehaymanot as a stagiaire.
Barry's Maple Leaf Racing made it 100% clear that their main objective is high finishes in Stage Races by signing two more GC-style Riders.
First to come on board was Richie Porte, the 'Tasmanian Devil Fish' sprung to prominence by finishing seventh in the 2010 Giro, holding the pink jersey for three stages and coming away with the young riders jersey. Porte, who has signed a two-year deal, has also had top 10 finishes in the 2010 & 2011 World Time-Trial Championship.
Joining him is Robert Kiserlovski, who himself finished 10th in the 2010 Giro. The Croat , who is 18 months younger than Porte, has signed a three-year deal with Barry's following a 2011 which was ruined by a serious crash in the Paris-Nice.
Barry's Racing have brought in more three more riders, including a sprinter and a classics leader.
Australian Matthew Hayman has signed a 1-year deal to be the team's classics leader. The experienced rider from New South Wales has two top 10 finishes in Gent–Wevelgem in his career and had a very succesful classics season in 2011. Hayman finished 10th in the Paris–Roubaix, won Paris–Bourges and had two more top 10 finishes in the Flanders Semi-Classics.
Davide Appollonio is the new sprint leader of the Barry's team. Despite not having great results to date, it appears that this is a long term signing viewed in the knowledge that sprinting is not a key focus of the team. The young Italian has been hemmed into a three-year deal to prove it.
A key member of the backroom team had this to say about these signings:
"(Davide) has lots of potential, at the end of the day he is only 22 at start of the 2012 season, and with him leading our sprint squad in the biggest races against the likes of Cav, Griepel, Sagan and Degenkolb, he will no doubt grow and improve at an incredible rate. Meanwhile, Matt is someone who can pinch top 10 spots in classic races without needing an outstanding team around him."
On top of that, Barry's also added another GC rider in Jose Rujano, the Venezuelan climber finished 6th in the 2011 Giro, having previously finished 3rd in the 2005 version.
BARRY'S TEA RACING have brought in a wealth of experience by signing 38 year old's Alexander Vinokourov and David McCann.
Kazakh rider, Alexander Vinokourov, brings to Barry's what they lack in their prospective leaders and that's big race wins. In a case of 'show us your medals', Vino wins hands down in the Irish based teams training camp. A Vuelta win, a Tour De France podium, 2 Liege-Bastogne-Liege victories, 2 Paris-Nice's, a Criterium de Dauphine and an Olympic silver medal from Sydney.
Former Triple Crown winner, Stephen Roche, rumoured to be working behind the scenes in the draft room for the team, publicly had this to say:
"(Barry's) have a squad full of talent in their leaders. People like (Ryder) Hesjedal, Dan (Martin), (Andrew) Talansky, (Richie) Porte and Bobbie (Robert Kierlovski) have the potential to be Grand Tour competitors. None of them have been there before though. Vino, as a road captain and a workhorse can help them through that."
They continued to get more experienced by signing Ulsterman, David McCann.
While McCann has never ridden in the top-tier of cycling, preferring to split his time between track and road, the man from Belfast has a 16-year career in cycling and has an astonishing NINE national road & TT titles.
Giving McCann 3-year deal at 38 is a mass gamble and possibly a desperation draft to make the team more Irish. It is expected that McCann will form part of the classics team for Matt Hayman.
Barry's continued the Irish theme by giving a two year deal to 26 year old Matt Brammeier.
Like new teammate Dan Martin, Brammeier was born in England but has ridden for Ireland since 2009 with outstanding domestic success. In 2011 he not only retained the national Road Race title that he won for the first time in 2010 but also picked up the time-trial crown as well.
Edited by Welwyn on 04-01-2013 15:04
Barry's drive to add experience continued today with the signing of 38-year old Australian Stuart O' Grady.
The Olympic track gold medallist will sign a two year deal with the team and become the third 38 year old to sign for the team in quick succession after Alexander Vinokourov and David McCann.
The man from Adelaide has won three stages of the Tour de France (in 1998 and 2004) as well as a Team Time Trial in 2001 but, as a former winner of Paris-Roubaix, will surely play his key role with Barry's in 2012 as part of Matt Hayman's classics Squad.
They also agreed a one-year deal with German Christian Knees, who is a decent climbing domestique for a team that is already full of high class climbing talent.
