I was not entirely convinced that Aqua Blue would actually get going. Frankly, I didn't think that their backer was rich enough to fund a PCT team as a personal enthusiasm and I found it hard to see where PCT level commercial sponsorship could come from. Ireland's a small country with a shaky economy and PCT teams are expensive to run and don't get vast amounts of mainstream publicity. It seems that their owner/backer is indeed rich enough to fund a team as a personal enthusiasm and the news so far seems to indicate that they aren't doing things on the cheap - buying IAMs fancy bus, signing Nordhaug, the claim in the press release that the owner has guaranteed funding for four seasons.
In fact, give or take a bit of confusion about invites to races which don't ennounce invites for months, they are starting out quite well. In Nordhaug they've signed a higher level leader than would be expected of a brand new PCT team. Brammeier is a good all-round rider with plenty of experience and was the only current Irish pro they could reasonably have hoped to sign. Irvine has quite a high domestic profile, due to the novelty value of an Irish track world champion, and has been at PCT level before. Dunne is one of the best of the Irish Conti riders and is certainly good enough for a pro contract.
Brammeier, Irvine and Dunne are part of a very thin layer of Irish riders who are already of the necessary level but who aren't completely unaffordable. They are the kind of riders they needed to sign if they are serious about building an Irish focused PCT team. If they hadn't made those signings, we would have had to assume that the ambition and budget levels involved weren't significantly above those of a Conti team. Nordhaug is a more interesting signing because it's unexpected - he's a bigger name than you'd expect a new PCT outfit to be able to sign without him being long past his best years. They've also brought in some experienced back room staff, which is another good sign.
The rest of the signings will be interesting to watch. 12 more to come. The other Irish riders will be Conti riders or young prospects it is safe to presume, just because there is a scarcity of other riders who are already better than that but not beyond a new PCT team's reach. It is just about possible that they could sign Eddie Dunbar, who would obviously be the most highly touted Irish rider who has yet to join the pros, assuming Dunbar is willing to leave Axeon and doesn't have better offers. But the likelihood is that it will be low profile guys because that's what there is to choose from. The other non-Irish riders will be a more important indication of their ambition level.
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