Sean Downey in prologue action at the Tour de Normandie; he punctured yesterday at a very bad time during a testing finale that split the field.
Irish internationals Sean Downey and Felix English are well underway in the Tour de Normandie, having had a testing time in the opening three stages.
Downey, who put in a number of strong results in Belgium in the opening weeks of the season, is the only Irish rider in the An Post-Chainreaction line-up in France this week.
He came home in 141st place in the opening 3.5km prologue in Saint-Lo on Monday, losing 34 seconds to stage winner Stefan Kung (BMC).
Felix English (Rapha Condor JLT) has had a very strong start to the season,taking a fantastic 4th place in the prologue of the Herald Sun Tour in Australia in January. And he also enjoyed some very strong rides in criteriums during a training and racing trip there at the start of the year.
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He was 2nd on the opening leg of the Bay Crits series and also won the sprinters' classification at the conclusion of the series.
He was 44th on Monday’s opening test in France, some 16 seconds off the winner.
On the first road stage of the race on Tuesday, a 200km trek from Colombelles to Forges-Les-Eaux, the field split on the hilly finish after 4hrs 55mins in the saddle.
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The stage was won by English’s team mate Tom Moses, who also took the yellow jersey and the lead in the young riders’ classification.
Downey was 89th, some 42 seconds down while English was 147th, 10:15 down. Downey experienced bad luck when he punctured with 3km remaining.
On the second road stage today, Wednesday, the riders faced 149km from Les Eaux to Elbeuf-sur-Seine which ended in a bunch sprint won by Dylan Groenewegen (Team de Rijke).
Downey was in the bunch and placed 33rd. English was 143rd, 14:03 down. There are now 75th and 145th respectively, with English’s team mate Moses still in yellow, by six seconds from Kung.
The UCI ranked 2.2 race continues until Sunday.
Felix English blasted to 4th place in prologue of the Herald Sun Tour in Australia in January, but had to settle for a more modest result in Monday's test in France.
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