Downey showing some early season form in the Beverbeek Classic this year
By Brian Canty
The Irish contingent on the An Post-Sean Kelly team endured a difficult day at the Volta Limburg Classic (1.1) in Holland today, Saturday, with both Ronan McLaughlin and Sean Downey crashing out – the latter fracturing his elbow, while Stijn Ennekens was also forced to withdraw.
McLaughlin and Downey were part of an eight-man An Post-Sean Kelly line-up in the race but after around 60 kilometres, at the start of the second of three laps, the duo were among a group of seven or eight riders who came down on a narrow stretch of road.
Downey came off worst and as well as suffering substantial bruising, he suffered a slight fracture to his elbow and is now in a race to be fit for the Nations Cup races on April 11th and 14th respectively.
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“I’m just after getting it X-rayed and they spotted a very small fracture in my elbow,” he told stickybottle.
“I don’t need to get it plastered or anything, just need to get it wrapped up in band-aid.”
“It was on a really, really small road and I don’t know what happened but somebody flew out in front of me and I went head-over-heels and everyone fell on top of me. It was just the start of the second lap and I thought I’d broken my collar bone. I just couldn’t move.”
“I was lying at the side of the road. I got into the ambulance and they checked me out and they told me the collar bone wasn’t broken so I got back into the team car and went back to the camper to get cleaned up. I went to see the medic again and they advised me to go to the hospital and get it all checked out and that’s when I found out it was broken.”
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Despite the injury, the Banbridge youngster remained optimistic of a swift return to action.
“I’m not down to race next weekend so that should give me time. I have the Nations Cup then so hopefully I’ll be okay for that.”
McLaughlin said he felt well and was disappointed to have crashed, having not raced in almost two weeks.
“I felt good (before the crash), it’s been a few weeks since I’d raced. I was at home for a while and I actually got sick so I didn’t get in as much racing as I had hoped but I was feeling good today but disappointed how it ended.”
The Donegal rider sustained bruising to his knee and though it is stiff, he believes he could yet race tomorrow.
“I might race tomorrow,” he said.
“I’ll see how the knee is. I might do a local kermis or something but I’ll wait and see how it is in the morning.”
Best of the An Post on the day were Mark Christian and Kenneth van Bilsen who finished in the front group of some 25 riders.
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