Mark Downey clear in the Tour of Britain breakaway on stage 1. He was away for almost the entire stage. However, the move was kept on a tight leash and was caught (All photos by Simon Wilkinson-SWPix.com)

Mark Downey in 150km attack at Tour of Britain

While Mark Downey was drafted into the Tour of Britain at short notice, he has spent the opening stage on the attack.

Downey was among a six-man group to strike out from the 5km marker on the 175km stage from Pembrey Country Park to Newport.

And while they quickly gained a sizeable gap, the bunch was determined from the outset not to allow them get too far.

Rory Townsend, a Canyon Eisberg British pro who is registered as an Irish rider this year, made the escape with Downey.

Also in the move were Richard Handley (Madison-Genesis), Tom Moses (JLT-Condor), Matt Bostock (Great Britain) and Nic Diamini (Dimension Data).

They went very close to establishing a lead of three minutes, though never quite got there. And their competing for the intermediate sprints and climbers’ points broke up their rhythm a little.

They were not helped by the attentiveness of so many big teams back in the peloton, all keeping their interest alive  in the stage.

Top down: Townsend, a British rider competing under Irish nationality, was the last man out front from the escape. Greipel wins the stage from Ewan. Team Wiggins at the start; Downey second from left and Teggart second from right.

Team Sky, QuickStep, Mitchelton-Scott and EF Education First-Drapac all contributed to the chase. And while the leaders still had a minute with 40km remaining, it never looked like enough.

Related News

Lara Gillespie attacks Dolomite stage as Giro hits high mountains

Video - Italy's hero Balsamo mobbed mid-stage during Giro TT

However, they rode very well in staying out there for almost 160km; the last of them only being swept up by the bunch with 11km remaining.

Townsend had begun the attacking up the road as the escape just dipped inside 18km to go.

But with the breakaway only 13 seconds up on the bunch at that point, Downey decided to sit up and wait for the peloton.

While Moses also attacked up front and tried to encourage those still with him to continue working, they were soon caught.

Townsend forged clear briefly off the front of the breakaway but was swept up with 11km to go.

That eventually paved the way for a bunch sprint, won by Andre Greipel (Lotto-Soudal) from Caleb Ewan (Mitchelton-Scott).

Fernando Gaviria (QuickStep) was 3^rd, with Mark Downey’s and Matt Teggart’s Team Wiggins team made Gabriel Cullaigh in 4^th place.

Downey would lose time when he was caught; unsurprisingly coming home in 116^th at 4:47. Townsend finished in the same group as Downey, in 112^th place.

Teggart would complete the stage in the bunch, in 55^th place. That was a very solid ride considering the pace was very high up the late Belmont Hill climb just 10km from the finish.

Tour de France champion Geraint Thomas (Team Sky) was among the attackers on the climb, as was the QuickStep duo of Julian Alaphilippe and Bob Jungels.

The QuickStep pair then went clear in a late escape after the last climb. But it too was caught and the sprinters' teams got their desired outcome despite Jungels pressing on from the late move solo until the final kilometre.

Thanks to their breakaway efforts, Townsend is 3^rd in the sprints classification and Downey is 5^th. The race continues tomorrow with 174km from Cranbrook to Barnstaple.

Downey and Teggart are part of the Team Wiggins line-up in this race following the sudden demise of Aqua Blue Sport.

It had named Eddie Dunbar and Conor Dunne on its team for the Tour of Britain. Unfortunately on Monday came the announcement the team would stop.

It appeared initially it would see out the season. However, it soon emerged the team had ridden its last race.

And that meant it would not even continue for another fortnight so the riders could compete in the Tour of Britain.