Sean Downey heading for what looked like one of Northern Ireland's best ever rides on the road until officialdom intervened.
Sean Downey was best of the Northern Ireland team at the Commonwealth Games road race in Glasgow today; fighting against abysmal conditions to end the event one of the last men standing in a quality field.
However, on a day that should have ended in contentment for the Banbridge man, he was left to rue what might have been.
Placed 13th on the road going out onto the last lap of 12 in horrendous conditions, the race organisers stopped him as he was about to take the bell.
There were just 12 finishers on the day, meaning Downey was very unlucky to be pulled out under a rule in cycling that sees riders who fall too far behind in circuit races stopped from riding around.
Advertisement
It is very unusual for a rider placed as well as Downey was to be stopped from going out onto the last lap.
The frustrating turn of events means in the official results the top 12 are listed and then a DNF - for 'did not finish' - is attached to Downey's name 13th in sequence; in what should have been 13th place and what would have ranked one of the best rides of his career.
Lydia Boylan put in a good performance in the women's race, which saw just 27 finishers of 63 starters.
Boylan came home in 21st place, some 12:12 down on winner Lizzie Armistead. She led home Emma Pooley for an England 1-2 ahead of Ashleigh Passio of South Africa in third place.
Northern Ireland's only other rider in the women's race; Claire Oakley was a non finisher.
The men's race followed an usual pattern, with Isle of Man rider Peter Kennaugh attacking a couple kilometres into what would turn out to be over four hours in the rain.
Northern Ireland's Connor McConvey made a good effort to go after him. But with nobody else joining him and with such a long way to go, the Belfast man let Kennaugh ride away and stayed in the bunch.
Kennaugh ploughed along on his own for well over 100km, with Australia doing most of the chasing; Michael Hepburn putting in a huge effort on the front lap after lap and shelling most of the field, including world class names, out the back.
Lydia Boylan (left) and Claire Oakley with manager Ryan Connor just before the start of the women's race in Glasgow today (Photo with thanks to Gary McKeegan)
At the half way point, with six of the 12 laps completed, the Australians were still on the front chasing down Kennaugh and the peloton was down to just 25 riders. In that group were Downey, McConvey and Peter Hawkins; all three doing a great ride to even get that far.
Philip Lavery had lost touch earlier as had Fraser Duncan and Roger Aiken.
However, on the seventh and eight laps the field got smaller, with Hawkins and McConvey slipping out of contention.
Heading into the final hour of racing it was Shane Archbold, an An Post-Chainreaction team mate of Downey's but riding for New Zealand and having already won points race gold on the track in Glasgow, who put in the first really serious attack.
Related News
The race simply disintegrated from that point.
Downey, who appears on another level this year and took silver in the national road championships five weeks ago, was determined to finish.
And with riders dropping like flies after a testing race run off in a downpour, he looked on for a top 10 or top 15 placing.
However, when the first 12 riders went through the start-finish area for the last lap, the officials closed the course.
And when Downey arrived to start his last lap, he was told he was going no further. He was just over 10 minutes back at that time.
Caleb Ewan of Australia and David Millar of Scotland were only just ahead of him on the road, a fact that simply rubbed salt into Downey's wounds.
While Glasgow Airport was closed for a time due to the torrential downpours, the peloton trudged through the streets of Glasgow in the 163km race with some tough climbs to be covered on each of its 12 laps.
In the end, Sky’s Geraint Thomas survived a last lap puncture and a very slow wheel change to take gold for Wales ahead of Garmin Sharp pro Jack Bauer of New Zealand with NetApp Endura pro Scott Thwaites taking home the bronze for England,
“Sean should have finished 13th,” said Northern Ireland team manager Ryan Connor of Downey, after a race that saw the 139 starters whittle down to just 12 finishers.
“We were hoping to try and sneak a medal with Sean but it was a hard race obviously, in tough conditions," said Connor.
"We knew it was going to split to pieces like that in the wet.
"In the end there were more and more people falling out and we were half hoping he might have sneaked into the top 10. He didn't quite make it but he wasn’t far off."
Commonwealth Games Road Race
Sunday, August 3rd, Glasgow
Men's Race
- Geraint Thomas (Wales) 4:13:05
- Jack Bauer (New Zealand) 0:01:21
- Scott Thwaites (England)
- Russell Downing (England) 0:04:29
- Mark Renshaw (Australia)
- Luke Rowe (Wales) 0:04:32
- Greg Henderson (New Zealand) 0:05:15
- Peter Kennaugh (Isle of Man)
- Dan Craven (Namibia) 0:09:03
- Scott Davies (Wales) 0:10:10
- David Millar (Scotland) 0:10:21
- Caleb Ewan (Australia) 0:11:22
Women's Race
1 Lizzie Armitstead (England) 2:38:43
2 Emma Pooley (England) 0:00:25
3 Ashleigh Pasio (South Africa) 0:01:11
4 Tiffany Cromwell (Australia)
5 Linda Villumsen (New Zealand) 0:01:14
6 Gracie Elvin (Australia) 0:02:19
7 Katie Archibald (Scotland)
8 Leah Kirchmann (Canada) 0:05:29
9 Joanne Kiesanowski (New Zealand)
10 Melissa Hoskins (Australia)
11 Dani King (England)
12 Hannah Barnes (England)
13 Amy Roberts (Wales)
14 Rushlee Buchanan (New Zealand)
15 Reta Trotman (New Zealand)
16 Jaime Nielsen (New Zealand)
17 Shara Gillow (Australia)
18 Anna Christian (Isle of Man)
19 Lucy Garner (England)
10 Laura Trott (England)
21 Lydia Boylan (Northern Ireland) 0:12:12
22 An-Li Kachelhoffer (South Africa) 0:12:17
23 Gemma Neill (Scotland)
24 Tamiko Butler (Antigua and Barbuda)
25 Jasmin Glaesser (Canada)
26 Chloe Hosking (Australia)
27 Anne Ewing (Scotland)
Topics
