Rory Townsend (WiV SunGod) was absolutely overcome with emotion, and in tears, after winning the elite men's gold medal at the National Road Race Championships in Kanturk, Co Cork, today.
The 26-year-old was on the move off the front for the day and in the closing stages managed to get away from Cormac Mcgeough (Wildlife Generation Pro Cycling), who took silver 26 seconds back.
The bronze medal went to Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost), who took the sprint from the four-rider chasing group that was 2:26 down on the lone winner. As the video above shows, Townsend was overwhelmed to win and afterwards said Rás Tailteann - which he rode on the Irish team and where he won a stage - was ideal preparation.
"It's absolutely mental, I can't really believe it at the moment," he said after being presented with his champion's jersey and gold medal on the podium. "Just... everything went right today, I'm so glad."
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Townsend said he focused on going to the Rás - where he was road captain on an otherwise U23 Irish team - in great shape and also with the intention of using the race to build for today's title decider.
"If I could get through the (Rás) week and have a successful week, but also just stay out of trouble and avoid getting ill and stuff, then I knew I'd be in good shape for this.
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"I remember when Ben Healy won champs, he had a similar prep, a good stage race coming into it that year and he was untouchable today. And I was just sort of trying to emulate that today."
Asked if Eddie Dunbar, the local man riding for Ineos Grenadiers, was a rider he was concerned out on the court, Townsend confirmed, saying "of course, yes".
"It's local for him and it's a shame, like, in a way because I know how much he would have wanted this being a local race. So it's a shame he didn't get the chance to really go for it in the end. But, yeah, he was the main guy I was thinking about coming into the race."
Townsend said he was trying to focus on getting clear in a breakaway before the climbs. His logic was that while he knew he could set a very good pace for the full race, he felt he had "no chance" of matching Dunbar's surges on the climbs.
"So I got in a group of four on the second climb of the day," he said of going clear with eventual silver medal man Mcgeough as well as U23 gold medal winner Dean Harvey (Spellman Dublin Port) and last year's U23 winner John Buller (Amicale Cycliste Bisontine).
"I said to the lads 'what we need to do is make it to the top of that next climb, that's our finish line in a way'. And, like I said, things just worked out perfectly."
While Dunbar managed to get across to the four-man group on his own, he was made to dig deep to close the gap and he eventually slipped backwards from the group - with Townsend and Mcgeough the last men standing from that early breakaway. It appeared the early effort Dunbar made to ride across that gap Townsend made sure of creating went into the reserves of the Ineos Grenadiers star name.
Asked how he would celebrate, Townsend said he would "have a few pints of the black stuff".
Lots more to come.
