SEAN KELLY HOPES that the Giro d’Italia’s arrival will help bring through the newest wave of Ireland’s cycling talent.

Kelly was in Tielt, Belgium yesterday for the 2013 launch of the An Post Chain Reaction Sean Kelly team which features four young Irish riders — Ronan McLaughlin (25), Sam Bennett (22), Sean Downey (22) and Jack Wilson (19).

Officials from the Giro are expected in Ireland tomorrow to confirm details for the 2014 race. The opening stages are set to take place north and south of the border in May of next year, the first time since the 1998 Tour de France that Ireland has hosted part of one of cycling’s three Grand Tours.

The coup of bringing the global showpiece to these shores is expected to net upwards of €1om for the local economy but Kelly, who won a Grand Tour himself at the Vuelta a Espana in 1988, says it will also be an inspiration for cyclists at all levels.

“It’s always a great thing to have the likes of the Giro coming to Ireland,” he said. “It’s a great thing for cycling and for the younger generation coming up. It can only help them.”

“It will inspire quite a lot of people. The way it’s going at the moment, there’s more underage riders in there in the last year. The leisure cycles as well, there’s big numbers.

There’s a lot of kids getting out and about with their fathers. Some of them might get into a club because they like cycling and the Giro will help with that as well. I think it will help in that respect, but how big it will be, it’s difficult to calculate.

The An Post Chain Reaction Sean Kelly team, which competes on the “third tier” UCI Continental circuit, officially announced its line-up for 2013 yesterday with 10 new signings in the 17-man squad.

Of the Irish quartet, 22-year-old Bennett — who hails from Kelly’s own Carrick-on-Suir — is thought to have the best chance of landing a professional deal this season.

“Last year he had very good flashes throughout the season,” Kelly said. “He got injuries and that’s the problem, so you hope that he can overcome that and be stronger.

“The perfect scenario would be that he’d win a few races and then he could move on to the Continental Pro [second tier] level.

“When you see the way he was performing at the Tour of Britain and at the Worlds, he’s capable of doing it. He just has to be consistent for five or six weeks.”