Irish rider Leo Doyle has enjoyed a strong weekend of racing in Belgium as his season is back on track following bouts of Covid-19.
Doyle, now racing once more in the colours of Irish club DB Cycling Club, finished 2nd in the Lede Criterium on Friday night before finishing 4th in the Oostnieuwkerke road race on Sunday.
Friday’s race was 72km, fought out over a course of 2.4km with a 1km drag on the circuit. A breakaway group of four riders went clear early in the race. Doyle decided to try and bridge across in a four-man group.
When they made the juncture, their eight-rider breakaway continued to work away but the pace saw the eight up front soon whittled down to just five riders, with Doyle among them.
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While there were plenty of attacks from the leading five inside the final 10km, the fight for victory came down to a sprint from the breakaway. Doyle got sightly bumped in the final dash to the line, when he had to freewheel for a moment to avoid hitting the kerb, and was narrowly beaten to the victory.
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Belgian rider Kjell De Pootter (EL319) won the day, from Doyle, with Israeli rider Aviv Bental (City CC) 3rd, Bart Van De Eeckhout (EL319) 4th and Brent Van Duren (Mysenlan-PXL Carpets) 5th.
Doyle was not the only Irish rider in the race as UCD Cycling Club’s Joel Luke placed 27th in a group at 1:23 while Jason Kenny, Rhys Kenny, Conor Murnane (all UCD CC) and Sean Landers (VC Balrothery) were among the non-finishers on the night.
Yesterday, in the 116.5km race in Oostnieuwkerke, Doyle placed 4th after riding across early to the initial breakaway. That group swelled when it was joined by a chasing group numbering about 20 riders.
Doyle then took the initiative, attacking from the front group in a bid to whittle it down. He got clear and was joined by eight others. That group when on to fight it out for the victory, with Doyle taking 4th place.
Belgian Lars Van Coppenolle (EL319+) took the victory from French riders Rémi Huens and Axel Huens, both Dunkerque Grand Littoral-Cofidis), taking 2nd and 3rd on the same time as the winner. Doyle was 4th at three seconds.
