Liam Curley takes strong result against pro opposition in Belgium

*Liam Curley has been showing some great form in Belgium, taking the best result of his season to date (Photo: Martine Verfaillie)*

Irish rider Liam Curley (EvoPro Racing) has taken a very strong result racing against professional riders in Belgium. The 22-year-old made the breakaway at Houtem-Vilvoorde, a 135km race held just north of Brussels, before going on to take 9th.

The field featured a number of Continental and ProContinental riders, including those from Alpecin Fenix and Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise. While Curley has won plenty of big races in Ireland and has been on Irish teams for races such as Tour de l'Avenir, his latest result in Belgium was especially strong.

With temperatures in the mid 30s and the pace on from the very start of the race, which was 15 laps of a 9km circuit. Curley obviously felt good from the start as he set about marking the attacks, prioritising following the ProContinental riders up the road.

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That approach paid off and when the winning breakaway got clear, on the fourth lap, the Irish rider was present and contributing to the workload upfront to ensure in the move stayed away.

It wasn’t until the final lap that the breakaway split and the move stuck. Belgian riders Gianni Marchand of the Tarteletto-Isorex Continental team and Alex Colman of ProContinental team Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise managed to get clear of the escape group.

While Curley joined the counter attackers after the two leaders they stayed clear and took 1st and 2nd. Marchand won the race by 10 seconds from Colman. Some 26 seconds later the rest of the breakaway sprinted in to contest 3rd place.

Curley was a little boxed in during that sprint for the final place on the podium and finished the race in 9th place; a strong result over three hours of racing in what was a very competitive field.