With Photos: Brittany smiles on Downey, best result since joining UCI Continental ranks

Downey made gains in the TT and held his own on the road stages

Ireland’s Sean Downey has bagged his best result of the season to date, finishing the Kreiz Breizh Elites three-day in Brittany in eight place overall.

The An Post-Sean Kelly rider was part of a national selection that took in the four-stage race which finished today, Monday. His seventh place in the time trial yesterday, Sunday, laid the foundation for his high placing overall in the UCI 2.2 event.

He finished in the bunch in yesterday afternoon’s road stage and repeated that performance on today’s final road stage; a tougher 169km leg that saw more splits develop in the bunch than on the first two road stages.

Downey had been in seventh overall after the 12.7km TT on Sunday morning. With the 102km afternoon stage ending with the bunch in tact – apart from the stage winner, who had two seconds on the line – Downey went into today’s final stage still in 7^th place, some 27 seconds adrift of the overall lead.

A couple of riders finished today’s stage six and three seconds ahead of the main peloton, with Downey slipping by one place on GC to 8^th overall as a result.

He finished on the same time as the main field, with fellow Irish team member Aaron Buggle for company. Of the other four riders on the Irish team in the race, Sam Bennett and Ronan McLaughlin were distanced after working for Downey while Pater Hawkins and Jack Wilson did not finish the final stage.

Philip Lavery – who was riding the race for his Node4 Giordana team – came in 24 seconds down as time gaps appeared in the gallop to the line today.

With the likes of the Rabobank and Omega Pharma-Quickstep feeder teams in the race, Downey’s performance was a very good one. It is arguably his best result since he moved up to Continental level with the An Post-Sean Kelly team at the start of the season.

His TT ride will also very much put him in contention for selection for the U23 World Championships in September. The composition of the team to ride the Worlds in Holland – assuming Ireland qualifies, which looks likely now – will undoubtedly be heavily influenced by the outcome of the U23 European Road Race and TT Championships next month.

It looks likely that Ireland will only have three riders at the Worlds, meaning fierce competition for places.

See a full set of photos from Brittany just below these results.

Result: Stage 4 – 169.1km

1 HOFLAND Moreno RB3 4h02'42''
2 SENECHAL Florian EFC @3secs
3 LE MONTAGNER Benjamin CAC22 @6
4 KEO Emmanuel SOJ
5 GUILLEMOT Frédéric BRE
6 CAM Maxime BRE
7 WILLIAMS Peter NGR
8 PARDO ABARZUZA Ion ESG
9 CHOPIN David HEN
10 DAKTERIS Janis PCW
26 DOWNEY Sean IRL
86 BUGGLE Aaron IRL
93 LAVERY Philip NGR @24
100 BENNETT Sam IRL @59
106 MC LAUGHLIN Ronan IRL @ 02:00
DNF WILSON Jack IRL
DNF HAWKINS Peter IRL

Final General Classification

1 STEENSEN André GLU - 483 km in 11h48'48'' (Average : 40.886 km/h)
2 PAILLOT Yoann TOP16 @16
3 GOUGEARD Alexis USSAPB @21
4 LE BON Johan BSC @22
5 HOFLAND Moreno RB3 @24
6 ANDERSEN Michael Valgre GLU @26
7 VAN BAARLE Dylan RB3
8 DOWNEY Sean IRL @27
9 OOSTLANDER Sander CJP @28
10 BOCHMANN Lasse GLU @32
46 LAVERY Philip NGR @1:27
56 BUGGLE Aaron IRL @1:40
63 BENNETT Sam IRL @1:54

87 MC LAUGHLIN Ronan IRL @3:29