Grabovskyy returns to racing at An Post Rás

At only 25, Dmytro Grabovskyy has had more than his share of troubles, and is hoping that in 2011 he can turn things around. Riding for the ISD-Lampre Continental team, the Ukrainian rider hopes to put his problems behind him and regain the form that helped him become World U23 Road Race Champion in 2005.

His career started on the track, where he was part of the Junior and U23 European Championship-winning Team Pursuit squad, and where he became Junior and U23 European Champion in the Scratch. Turning to the road, his success continued, especially in time trialling, and he signed with QuickStep as a trainee in 2006, after winning a stage and coming second in the Baby Giro that year.

But as he turned pro with QuickStep in 2007, he was never able to settle with the team or build on his results. In 2010, he revealed that at this time he had turned to alcohol, struggling with addiction and nearly dying of alcohol poisoning twice.

After signing to ISD-Neri in 2009, and coming fifth on two stages of the Giro d'Italia, it seemed like 2010 would be his come-back season. Grabovskyy won the mountains classification in Tirreno-Adriatico, but his return was cut short after he suffered head injuries and a broken collarbone in a training accident in May. He returned to racing in August, but only achieved 62nd in the Volta a Portugal.

Moving to the ISD-Lampre Continental team for 2011, the Ukrainian's first big goal will be the An Post Rás in May, where he's provisionally due to ride alongside Yuiy Agarkov, winner of the 2011 GP Donetsk, and Oleksandr Sheydyk, who has so far this year finished second in the GP Sochi and fourth in the GP Donetsk.

An Post Rás, which runs from May 22-29 in Ireland, will cover 1247 kilometres over eight stages, including 29 categorised climbs, with three first category ascents.

ISD-Lampre will join teams from all over the world, including the Drapac Professional team from Australia, the New Zealand national team, the USA-based Wonderful Pistachios squad, KTM Murcia from Greece and Spain, AVC Aix en Provence from France, and the German Thuringer Energie team, who John Degenkolb was riding for when he won last year's Rás, before transferring to HTC-Highroad.

ISD-Lampre Continental provisional line up for An Post Rás: Yuiy Agarkov, Dmytro Grabovskyy, Anatoliy Pakhtusov, Oleksandr Sheydyk and Maksym Vasyliev.