a day ago
Rory Townsend sprints to victory to claim second national road race title
Townsend and Meehan were part of a large breakaway group that spent most of the day out front before fragmenting on the final 9km circuit around Yellow Furze.
This early ten-man move also contained WorldTour duo Ryan Mullen (Red Bull Bora Hansgrohe) and Darren Rafferty (EF Education) and was driven along by local hero Mullen for much of the day.
'For sure, the strongest guy all day was Ryan,' said newly crowned champion Townsend afterwards. 'He really took the race to everyone, rode so strong, but in the end the aggressive nature of the race maybe caught up with him a little bit. It was carnage.'
This lead group of ten whittled down to just four in the finale, with Meehan leading them out onto the final lap with just Townsend, Rafferty and Patrick Casey of Israel Premier Tech U-23 Academy able to hang on.
From this group, Townsend jumped clear again with 3km to go, with only Meehan able to bridge across to him.
At the finish, the bigger more powerful Townsend had the upper hand in the sprint, with Meehan having to settle for silver in the elite race and gold in the U-23.
'There was a rolling section with about 3km to go with a bit of a tailwind that suited me so that's where I clipped away from our group,' said Townsend.
'I saw I was distancing Darren [Rafferty] and, at that point, I was feeling pretty confident. I was a little bit less confident when Jamie jumped across to me, because he's such a talent.
'I just sat on him and then banged him with 300metres to go. It's pretty simple maths – 75 kilos outweighs 50 kilos in a sprint like this.
Townsend was emotional after the line and was mobbed by family and friends from Waterford where his father grew up before moving to London, and where the new national champion first took up cycling during his summer holidays.
ADVERTISEMENT
'It sounds crazy but this is the biggest race of the year for me,' said Townsend through tears afterwards.
'It's the only one I struggle to sleep the night before and stuff, so it's really special. It's the one race you want to win from when you're a kid, so it makes you feel like a kid every time you come back and gives you the same feeling when you win.
'It's the only race I come to with my family, where they're my support crew and they have to put up with me in the morning before the race. It's a big relief to pull it off and make some apology for my foul mood this morning.
'We've been staying down in Lemybrien. I've been doing the old roads over the last few days. I've got my brother my dad, my uncle, all my family here with me, so it's really special. This is the biggest thing for me.'
Second-placed Meehan was philosophical after going home with two medals in the combined elite / U-23 race.
'To get the elite would have been special,' he admitted of his second place on the day. 'Maybe in a few days I'll be happy with winning the U-23 but for now I'm disappointed. I had to fully commit with that group of four, stay out of that big group behind because I don't have a sprint, so I wanted as few as possible with me.
'I knew if I took a chance I could maybe get away, but Townsend put in a dig. I just hit it as hard as I could and got over to him. I went over the top of him, but he jumped on.
'I gave it another dig but he held it and said he wouldn't ride. He put in an attack and I had to give everything to hold the wheel.
'I knew if could have went one more time, that was the move, but I just couldn't go one more time, so I knew coming into the finish with him it was only going to go one way really.'
Patrick Casey took third overall and the silver medal in the U-23 race three seconds later, with Darren Rafferty fourth at six seconds and recent Giro NextGen stage winner Seth Dunwoody (Bahrain Victorious U-23) leading home the chase group for fifth, 29 seconds back, and taking the bronze medal in the U-23 race.
