Having been a stand-out rider in the youth ranks, Seth Dunwoody made his debut as a junior today with his new team, Cannibal-Victorious U19 Development Team, at the junior Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne in Belgium.
The 16-year-old may have missed the original big move today in the 116km race but he soon made amends; getting out of the bunch into a chasing group. Something of an epic pursuit then unfolded, with young Dunwoody - who rode to Orchard Shelbourne CC last year - getting to the front of the race and making an impact.
By that stage lone leader, and eventual race winner, Jarno Widar (Crabbé Toitures-CC Chevigny) had got clear and was headed to victory. The 17-year-old Belgian rider eventually claimed victory by 1:55 from a 16-rider chasing group. He staged an impressive 40km solo breakaway to clinch that win, a copy of the victories in the event for Remco Evenepoel, now with Soudal-QuickStep, in 2018 and Cian Uijtdebroeks, now with Bora-hansgrohe, in 2020.
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Dunwoody was in that group and after a near miss with the barriers in the finishing sprint, he finishing in 11th place to cap what was a brilliant debut rider as a junior in his first outing of this level. His team - the junior feeder squad for the Bahrain Victorious World Tour team - had two riders in the chasing group, with Briton Alex Franks placing 13th.
When the large 19-rider breakaway went clear on the Tiegmberg Dunwoody missed it, though tried to get across to it over the top of the climb. While those efforts were not successful, he managed to get clear with one of the riders from the British Zappi Racing team.
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They were soon joined by Dunwoody's Ukrainian team mate, Daniil Yakovlev. Together, that trio tackled six climbs, some cobbled, including the Bossenaarstraat, Kruisberg and Kluisberg. Their group then got larger as it was caught by some chasers and also mopped up some of the riders who were spat out of the 19-man breakaway still up the road.
They did well to make the juncture and while the victory was already gone up the road - solo winner Widar putting in a stunning ride - there were still two places on the podium left, making for a fierce sprint from Dunwoody's group. While he crossed the line 10th in that group - and so 11th in the race - he would have done a little better but for being forced to back off a little in the sprint following his near miss with the crowd control barriers.
Another of the Irish riders, Patrick Casey (Anexo Group Race Team), was also making his junior debut today and, despite suffering an early mechanical, finished in 75th place at 5:46. Tom Kinsella (Team Culture Velo U19) was a victim of an especially crash-hit period of the race, in the lead-in to the Tiegemberg and was a non-finisher today. While Darragh Doherty (Flanderscolor-Defever Team) was due to ride today, he was a non-starter.
More to come.
