Mark Cavendish with Columbia for the Tour of Ireland

The team rosters for the Tour of Ireland have just been announced, with quadruple Tour de France stage winner Mark Cavendish named to join the Columbia team. 

Sixteen teams will compete in the 900km event, which takes place on the 27 to the 31 August. The race begins at

at Hanover Quay, Dublin Docklands and finishes in Cork five days later.

Bernhard Eisel, Frantisek Rabon and Marco Pinotti will also join Cavendish for team Columbia’s attempt to dominate the podium. 

Columbia, Tinkoff and Garmin Slipstream / Chipotle headline the list of teams taking part in the refounded Tour, they’re also joined by Karpin Galicia, SouthAustralia.com/AIS, CSF Navigare, Team Type 1 and Rabobank.

Daniel Martin arrives back in Ireland at the head of the Garmin / Chipotle team, joining a star studded line up. Martin will wear the Irish road race champion’s jersey from his national victory in June, the same month he also won the Route Du Sud in France.

The 21-year-old nephew of Stephen Roche is currently in 11th place overall after four stages of the Tour of Portugal, which finishes on 24th August. Martin’s high finish in the mountainous stage three saw him gain time on many of his rivals. He’s currently 5min 38sec behind the race leader with seven stages remaining.

The Garmin-Chipotle team also includes former Tour de France yellow jersey holder David Millar and former Paris Roubaix winner Magnus Backstedt.

The Irish national team includes top rider Paul Griffin (Tralee) and former multiple Irish champion David McCann (Belfast) who won this year’s Tour of Ulster and finished fourth in the Tour of Qinghai Lake in China last month. Miceal Concannon (Kerry) also justified his selection when he won the 100-mile stage two of the Surrey League Five Day race in England this weekend. He beat Tom Southam (Team Halfords) in the final sprint and the duo finished over two minutes ahead of the pack led by British champion Rob Hayles.

Pezula Racing’s team line up includes David O’Loughlin (Cong, Co. Mayo) who finished 11th in the men’s individual pursuit in the Beijing Olympics last Friday and Ciarán Power (Waterford). Pezula have also signed two new riders from Sweden ahead of the race’s start next Wednesday.

Full team list:

    Team Columbia (USA)

    Team Garmin-Chipotle p/b H30  (USA)

    Tinkoff Credit Systems (Russia)

    Rabobank (Netherlands)

    CSF Group – Navigare (Italian)

    Karpin Galicia (Spain)

    SouthAustralia.com/AIS (Australia)

    An Post – Sean Kelly Team (Ireland)

    Team Type 1 (USA)

    Joker-Bianchi (Norway)

    TopSport – Vlaanderen (Belgium)

    Pezula Racing (Ireland)

    Irish National Team

    Rapha Condor Recycling.co.uk (Britain)

    MTN Energade Cycling Team (South Africa)

    Pinarello- CandiTV (Britain)