Rory Townsend has celebrated his selection onto the Irish elite men's team for the Worlds in Yorkshire with a classification win at the Tour of Britain.
The Canyon dhb p/b Bloor Homes rider took the sprints jersey into the final stage today and sealed the classification win at the end of the day into Manchester.
An early breakaway mopped up most of the sprints points and as it did not feature any riders that threatened Townsend's jersey, he was unconcerned.
Furthermore, even though Dries De Bondt (Corendon-Circus) scored points in the last sprint and was 2nd in the classification, he failed to overhaul Townsend.
The Irish rider built up his lead by going on the attack on the opening stage and again on stage 3 and held the jersey all the way to the finish.
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Today's final stage into Manchester was won by race leader Mathieu van der Poel in a bunch sprint; the Corendon Circus man collecting his third stage win of the week.
That meant van der Poel won the race overall by 17 seconds from Matteo Trentin (Mitchelton-Scott); both riders among some of the groups that went off the front today after Team Ineos had tried to split the racing.
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Eddie Dunbar (Team Ineos) was 39th today at 24 seconds and finished 55th overall at 21:46.
The 23-year-old went on the attack several times today and while he looked strong in his efforts he was unable to get clear.
Townsend and Conor Dunne (Israel Cycling Academy) were 54th and 91st today respectively in a group at 6:17.
Dunne was 68th overall at 32:26 and Townsend finished in 96th overall at 44:58.
All three Irish riders in the race are part of the national team for the Worlds in Yorkshire where they will be joined by Sam Bennett, Dan Martin and Ryan Mullen.
Townsend was drafted into the team to replace Nicolas Roche as he crashed out of the Vuelta and fractured his kneecap.
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