Mark Dowling has enjoyed a fantastic day on the second stage of the Tour of Taiwan today, Tuesday, when he infiltrated the race-winning breakaway to claim his first result in a professional race.
The former DID Dunboyne man, now riding for UCI Continental ranked team Polygon Sweet Nice, claimed 9th on today’s stage and has now moved up into 10th place overall. Today’s stage was 137km long with one categorised climb.
Dowling told stickybottle last week that while he felt he was going well, he believed the course in Taiwan probably would not be hilly enough to play into his hands.
However, with the riders today hitting a small climb inside the last 30 minutes of racing, the ascent and fatigue in the legs of the peloton was enough to split the field to pieces, with no time left for any significant regrouping before the finish.
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Dowling performed very strongly on the climb, holding his place at the front of the action and when the field split he found himself in the breakaway with the other stronger riders in the race.
He eventually finished 9th on the stage, some 12 seconds down on winner Nathan Earle (Huon Salmon-Genesys Wealth Adviser). Dowling has also moved up to 10th overall after finishing in the bunch on yesterday’s opening stage.
There are three other Irish riders in the race including Dowling’s team mate Ryan Sherlock and also Dominic Jelfs and Martyn Irvine.
Sherlock described the start of today’s stage as “super fast”, saying the riders averaged 46.5kmph for the first 125km to the base of the climb. Sherlock said while the race was characterized by some very aggressive riding early on, it was not until about the 60km-70km mark that a 16-man group moved clear, which he was in.
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With all of the major teams represented except Madison-Genesis, the UK-based team of Jelfs, and Unitedhealthcare - US-based team of Ireland’s Irvine – the move worked well and was away for around 40km.
“I rode very hard in the break, that was maybe my downfall,” Sherlock said.
With Unitedhealthcare leading the charge after the escape, the breakaway was reeled in with around 20km remaining. The race then hit the climb and with around six minutes of a hard effort going up that ascent, the field split and Dowling was among the strong men to pull clear in the breakaway.
With the tough finale following a fast early part of the stage, all run off in temperatures above 30C, the field split very significantly as a result of the last climb. Sherlock paid a little for his efforts but still came home in 35th place, losing 57 seconds.
Jelfs was 81st at 7:20 while Irvine – who is still finding his road legs after his world title winning track exploits – finished 86th at 8:39.
The race also has further Irish interest in the form of the Azerbijan-registered team Synergy-Baku, which is run by Irishmen David McQuaid and David McCann. Their riders were first and third on yesterday’s opening stage and the winner of that opener Kirill Pozdnyakov still holds the leader’s jersey after today’s stage.
Stage 2: Tainan City - Guanzihling 137km
1 Nathan Earle (Huon Salmon-Genesys Wealth Adviser) 2:53:15
2 Bernard Sulzberger (DRAPAC Cycling)
3 Oddbjørn Klomtsen Andersen (Team Frøy-Bianchi)
4 Ki Ho Choi (Team Hong Kong China)
5 Kirill Pozdnyakov (Synergy Baku Cycling Project Team) @6 seconds
6 Mohammad Saufi Mat Senan (Terengganu Cycling Team)
7 Tsgabu Grmay (MTN Qhubeka)
8 Masakazu Ito (Aisan Racing Team)
9 Mark Dowling (Polygon Sweet Nice Team) @12 seconds
10 Sigurd Nesset (Team Frøy-Bianchi)
11 Louis Meintjes (MTN Qhubeka)
12 Adiq Othman (Champion System Pro Cycling Team)
13 Robbie Hucker (DRAPAC Cycling) @17 seconds
14 Sai-Udomsin Phuchong (Thailand National Team) @20 seconds
15 Yuzuru Suzuki (Shimano Racing Team) @23 seconds
16 David Clarke (Synergy Baku Cycling Project Team)
17 Jai Crawford (Huon Salmon-Genesys Wealth Adviser)
18 King Lok Cheung (Team Hong Kong China) @27 seconds
19 Anthony Giacoppo (Huon Salmon-Genesys Wealth Adviser)
20 Liam Holohan (Madison Genesis Team)
35 Ryan Sherlock (Polygon Sweet Nice Team) @ 57 seconds
81 Dominic Jelfs (Madison Genesis Team) @ 7:20
86 Martyn Irvine (UnitedHealthCare Pro Cycling) @ 8:39
General Classification
1 Kirill Pozdnyakov (Synergy Baku Cycling Project Team) 6:08:34
2 Nathan Earle (Huon Salmon-Genesys Wealth Adviser) @ 3seconds
3 Bernard Sulzberger (DRAPAC Cycling) @7 seconds
4 Oddbjørn Klomtsen Andersen (Team Frøy-Bianchi) @9 seconds
5 Ki Ho Choi (Team Hong Kong China) @13 seconds
6 Masakazu Ito (Aisan Racing Team) @19 seconds
7 Mohammad Saufi Mat Senan (Terengganu Cycling Team)
8 Tsgabu Grmay (MTN Qhubeka)
9 Adiq Othman (Champion System Pro Cycling Team) @25 seconds
10 Mark Dowling (Polygon Sweet Nice Team)
11 Louis Meintjes (MTN Qhubeka)
12 Sigurd Nesset (Team Frøy-Bianchi)
13 King Lok Cheung (Team Hong Kong China) @26 seconds
14 Robbie Hucker (DRAPAC Cycling) @30 seconds
15 Sai-Udomsin Phuchong (Thailand National Team) @31 seconds
16 David Clarke (Synergy Baku Cycling Project Team) @36 seconds
17 Jai Crawford (Huon Salmon-Genesys Wealth Adviser)
18 Yuzuru Suzuki (Shimano Racing Team)
19 Ian Bibby (Madison Genesis Team) @38 seconds
20 Anthony Giacoppo (Huon Salmon-Genesys Wealth Adviser) @40 seconds
34 Ryan Sherlock (Polygon Sweet Nice Team) @1:10
77 Dominic Jelfs (Madison Genesis Team) @8:39
87 Martyn Irvine (UnitedHealthCare Pro Cycling) @10:49
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