Paulissen to meet Kessiakoff at Sunshine Cup opener

Fredrik Kessiakoff leads Roel Paulissen (Image credit: Bikin' Cyprus)

Anticipation of the beginning of the international European race season comes to end Saturday when Tochni starters fire the gun to kick off the Cyprus Sunshine Cup 2008. In the first of five cross-country races, former team-mates Fredrik Kessiakoff (Full Dynamix) and Roel Paulissen (Cannondale-Vredestein) will go head to head while in the women's race Elisabeth Osl, Ivonne Kraft, Petra Henzi and Heather Irmiger will fight for victory.

The Mediterranean Island draws annually an interesting, high-level field for some early season training and racing in good weather. Adding to the talent in the men's race will be American Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski and two German Cape Epic winners Karl Platt and Stefan Sahm. Swiss rider Andreas Kugler, who last year grabbed one victory Sunshine Cup victory, could also help mix it up along with Swede Emil Lindgren, Ukrainian Sergey Rysenko, and Austrian Karl Markt. Local Team Bikin' Cyprus rider Christof Bischof of Switzerland wants to be present in the front group, too.