Rory Townsend has taken his second pro win in three days in Belgium after proving best from the breakaway at the 171km Omloop Mandel today. The victory comes just three days after the Irish road race champion won GP Lucien Van Impe solo on Thursday.
Townsend (WiV SunGod) came to the line today for a two-up sprint with Harry Tanfield (Ribble Weldtite) and got the better of the British rider to take victory. Behind the winner and runner up came a seven-rider chasing group, including riders from ProContinental teams Vlaanderen-Baloise and Alpecin-Deceuninck.
Ruben Apers (Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise) won the sprint for 3rd place from that group 10 seconds after Townsend crossed the line, with Jeppe Aaskov Pallesen (Team Coloquick) 4th and Cooper Isayers (Saint Piran) in 5th.
As was the case with his win on Thursday, Townsend got away early today, with 10 other riders with him. While they worked well to open a gap, some of the World Tour QuickStep-Alpha Vinyl riders in the race had missed the moved and tried to get back on terms.
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From that Belgian top tier team, Stijn Steels and Bert Van Lerberghe mustered the chase and pulled clear in a 15-man group in pursuit of the 11 riders up front. However, while they closed the gap right down, and got to within 15 seconds at one point, they failed to catch Townsend's breakaway and the gap between the two groups began to open again.
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Again, as was the case on Thursday, Townsend put in a few digs on the penultimate lap of the race to try and split the breakaway. However, it wasn't until one final attack just as the final lap was starting that he managed to get clear, with Tanfield following him in the move that secured 1st and 2nd.
Irish Continental team EvoPro Racing is in the middle of a busy block of action in Belgium and it had two finishers today; Cian Keogh in 52nd at 6:40 and Conn McDunphy 58th at 6:48.
Sat, Aug 27th: Omloop Mandel (171km)
01 TOWNSEND Rory WiV SunGod 03:33:37
02 TANFIELD Harry Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling + 01
03 APERS Ruben Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise + 10
04 PALLESEN Jeppe Aaskov Team Coloquick + 10
05 ISAYERS Cooper Saint Piran + 10
06 DESAL Cériel Bingoal Pauwels Sauces WB + 10
07 VERWILST Aaron Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise + 12
08 WEULINK Meindert À Bloc CT + 14
09 VAN KEIRSBULCK Guillaume Alpecin-Deceuninck + 15
10 ROOTKIN-GRAY Jack Saint Piran + 29
11 DE WILDE Gilles Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise + 33
12 STEELS Stijn Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team + 33
13 DE VYLDER Lindsay Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise + 33
14 CROCKETT Finn Ribble Weldtite Pro Cycling + 33
15 JOSEPH Thomas Minerva Cycling Team + 33
52 KEOGH Cian EvoPro Racing + 06:40
58 MCDUNPHY Conn EvoPro Racing + 06:48
