Leo Doyle in career-best ride against World Tour teams in Switzerland | Video

Leo Doyle was not intimidated by the quality of the field and set about his business with quite some class in Switzerland, where he was rewarded with a trip to the podium (Photo: LTS Leistungsbildograph:innen-Team Schweiz)

Leo Doyle, the 23-year-old Irishman racing for XSpeed United Continental this season, has enjoyed one of the best days of his career racing against World Tour teams in Switzerland.

Doyle, who signed for the Canadian UCI Continental team at the start of this season, got up the road for well over 100km in Grosser Preis des Kantons Aargau (1.1), which include teams like Lotto Dstny, EF Education-EasyPost, UAE Team Emirates, Bora-hansgrohe, Lidl-Trek and others.

The 174km race was eventually won by Maxim Van Gils (Lotto Dstny) from Alberto Bettiol (EF Education-EasyPost), but not before Doyle made his mark and was rewarded with a trip to the podium.

Doyle got up the road from the gun in a breakaway, though they were chased down and caught by EF Education-EasyPost after about 15km. However, the Irish rider went again on the climb through the finish area after about 15km, and this time got clear with Johan Jacobs (Movistar Team) before being joined by others.

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They included Doyle's Swiss team mate, Christoph Janssen, Michael Kukrle (Team Felt Felbermayr) and Jan Stöckli (Team Corratec-Vini Fantini).

Leo Doyle on the podium in Switzerland after battling for 4½ hours to come away with the climbers' classification win (Photo: LTS Leistungsbildograph:innen-Team Schweiz)

They combined very well to open a significant gap, with Janssen working hard for Doyle to build and maintain the gap, as the Irish rider went about winning the climbers' primes; scoring maximum points on four ascents.

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That ensured Doyle took the climbers' classification on the day before the breakaway was caught with two laps to go, about 40km from the line.

When the catch was made, the race was well into the final hour and the pace was on, with Doyle and his other breakaway companions in a battle to hold on for as long as they could.

While they were eventually distanced, as expected after their breakaway efforts, Doyle still had to finish, and do so within the time cut, to ensure he could claim the climbers' classification.

In the end he finished in 92nd, in a group 18:37, about two minutes inside the time cut, meaning he was assured of the climbers' prize, rounding out a very strong day by the young Irish rider.

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