Mark Downey gives it full gas in Florence today in a solid ride, though one that fell short of his pre-race hopes (Photo: Sean Rowe)
Ireland’s sole representative in the junior time trial at the World Road Championships in Italy, Mark Downey has had a tough day at the office, finishing further down the field than he would have liked.
He was 48th of an 84-rider line-up, just a handful of slots outside the first half of the field; a more than respectable ride in his first year as a junior against such a quality field if a little below his hope of a top 25 finish.
However, riding his first road Worlds, Downey has made his first steps into this level and will perhaps be less nervous as a result when he takes his place as part of the three-man Irish team in the junior road race on Saturday.
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A quality tester, the 17-year-old won the opening TT stage of the Junior Tour of Ireland and is only one of two riders to be selected to ride against the watch and on the road at these Worlds; Nicolas Roche being the other.
So against that backdrop, the Banbridge CC man turned Nicolas Roche Performance Team rider cannot feel too disappointed with his performance in the heat of Florence today.
The Irish flags and shouts of encouragement for Downey were clear to see and hear as the riders snaked their way over the cobbles of the centre of Florence on their way to the finish of the 25.34km route.
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Cycling Ireland’s junior men’s coach, Frank O’Leary said he was very happy with the way Downey had ridden and with how he had acquitted himself generally.
“He was very consistent, and rode a steady pace throughout,” said O’Leary.
“Our main aim was for Mark to gain time trialling experience for the future, and his pacing and technical performance today, on a demanding circuit, was very good. He handled it very well, especially considering he is a first year junior on his first World Championship outing.”
“Mark finished just over 2 minutes outside the winning time; that is a very respectable result at a World Championship event. We are looking forward to the road race this weekend, where we will have a strong three man team competing. A good performance in that is our main aim this week.”
The race today, Tuesday, was won by Igor Decraene of Belgium in a time of 26:56.80, with Mathias Krigbaum (Denmark) winning silver, 8.66 seconds down. Zeke Mostov (USA) took bronze, a further 12 seconds a drift. Downey was 2:16.80 down, in an average speed of 44.75kmph.
Downey did well today and will perhaps be less nervous in Saturday's road race for it (Photo: Sean Rowe)
World Junior Time Trial Championships
Tuesday, September 24th, Florence
| 1 | Igor Decraene (Belgium) | 0:26:56.80 | |
| 2 | Mathias Krigbaum (Denmark) | 0:00:08.66 | |
| 3 | Zeke Mostov (United States Of America) | 0:00:20.97 | |
| 4 | Joshua Stritzinger (Germany) | 0:00:23.64 | |
| 5 | Matthew Gibson (Great Britain) | 0:00:30.16 | |
| 6 | Ole Forfang (Norway) | 0:00:44.21 | |
| 7 | Corentin Ermenault (France) | 0:00:44.40 | |
| 8 | Dmitriy Rive (Kazakhstan) | 0:00:46.24 | |
| 9 | Nikolay Cherkasov (Russian Federation) | 0:00:49.87 | |
| 10 | Michael Dessau (United States Of America) | 0:00:53.16 | |
| 11 | Emil Wang (Denmark) | 0:00:53.77 | |
| 12 | Stepan Kurianov (Russian Federation) | 0:00:59.61 | |
| 13 | Thomas Kaesler (Australia) | 0:01:00.39 | |
| 14 | Daniel Fitter (Australia) | 0:01:01.57 | |
| 15 | Michal Paluta (Poland) | 0:01:06.82 | |
| 16 | Piotr Konwa (Poland) | 0:01:09.69 | |
| 17 | Nathan Van Hooydonck (Belgium) | 0:01:09.76 | |
| 18 | Edoardo Affini (Italy) | 0:01:12.48 | |
| 19 | Jack Burke (Canada) | 0:01:13.31 | |
| 20 | Tom Wirtgen (Luxembourg) | 0:01:16.13 | |
| 21 | Timur Maleiev (Ukraine) | 0:01:16.63 | |
| 22 | Jon Božic (Slovenia) | 0:01:16.70 | |
| 23 | David Per (Slovenia) | 0:01:20.76 | |
| 24 | Pontus Kastemyr (Sweden) | 0:01:21.86 | |
| 25 | Oliver Mattheis (Germany) | 0:01:24.32 | |
| 26 | Mark Padun (Ukraine) | 0:01:27.19 | |
| 27 | Ryan Felgate (South Africa) | 0:01:27.41 | |
| 28 | Eduardo Estrada (Colombia) | 0:01:33.89 | |
| 29 | Atsushi Oka (Japan) | 0:01:34.27 | |
| 30 | Hampus Anderberg (Sweden) | 0:01:34.65 | |
| 31 | Daniel Martínez (Colombia) | 0:01:36.39 | |
| 32 | Filippo Ganna (Italy) | 0:01:37.70 | |
| 33 | Artem Nych (Russian Federation) | 0:01:37.91 | |
| 34 | Ivan Venter (South Africa) | 0:01:38.29 | |
| 35 | Juan Camacho Del Fresno (Spain) | 0:01:40.26 | |
| 36 | Sam Oomen (Netherlands) | 0:01:41.80 | |
| 37 | Adam Jamieson (Canada) | 0:01:43.91 | |
| 38 | Abderrahmane Bechlagheme (Algeria) | 0:01:45.47 | |
| 39 | Andrej Petrovski (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) | 0:01:50.85 | |
| 40 | Dominic Von Burg (Switzerland) | 0:01:56.37 | |
| 41 | Andrei Covalciuc (Republic of Moldova) | 0:01:59.95 | |
| 42 | Amanuel Mengis Ghebreindrias (Eritrea) | 0:02:13.26 | |
| 43 | Facundo Crisafulli (Argentina) | 0:02:14.29 | |
| 44 | Patrick Müller (Switzerland) | 0:02:15.13 | |
| 45 | Anton Ivashkin (Belarus) | 0:02:15.21 | |
| 46 | Luc Turchi (Luxembourg) | 0:02:16.35 | |
| 47 | Gaspar Gonçalves (Portugal) | 0:02:16.68 | |
| 48 | Mark Downey (Ireland) | 0:02:16.80 | |
| 49 | Cristopher Jurado (Panama) | 0:02:18.49 | |
| 50 | Mathieu Van Der Poel (Netherlands) | 0:02:19.33 | |
| 51 | Rémi Cavagna (France) | 0:02:20.39 | |
| 52 | Michal Schlegel (Czech Republic) | 0:02:21.20 | |
| 53 | Abderrahmane Mansouri (Algeria) | 0:02:23.93 | |
| 54 | Alexey Voloshin (Kazakhstan) | 0:02:24.37 | |
| 55 | Adrian Dumitru Zamfir (Romania) | 0:02:28.49 | |
| 56 | Milan Holomek (Slovakia) | 0:02:30.46 | |
| 57 | Aliaksandr Riabushenko (Belarus) | 0:02:31.14 | |
| 58 | Matas Mickevicius (Lithuania) | 0:02:32.73 | |
| 59 | Elgun Alizada (Azerbaijan) | 0:02:35.02 | |
| 60 | Onur Balkan (Turkey) | 0:02:35.16 | |
| 61 | János Pelikán (Hungary) | 0:02:37.42 | |
| 62 | Marco-Tapio Niemi (Finland) | 0:02:37.50 | |
| 63 | Ivan Garcia Cortina (Spain) | 0:02:37.86 | |
| 64 | Grigoriy Shtein (Kazakhstan) | 0:02:40.88 | |
| 65 | Raivis Sarkans (Latvia) | 0:02:50.07 | |
| 66 | Juraj Bellan (Slovakia) | 0:02:50.30 | |
| 67 | Santiago Quiroga (Argentina) | 0:02:50.34 | |
| 68 | Andrejs Podans (Latvia) | 0:02:50.48 | |
| 69 | Martynas Stasikelis (Lithuania) | 0:02:53.59 | |
| 70 | Victor Langellotti (Monaco) | 0:02:54.83 | |
| 71 | Nako Georgiev (Bulgaria) | 0:02:55.64 | |
| 72 | Lucian Buga (Romania) | 0:02:59.83 | |
| 73 | Andrea Maccagli (San Marino) | 0:03:05.71 | |
| 74 | Stylianos Farantakis (Greece) | 0:03:06.05 | |
| 75 | Sergey Medvedev (Uzbekistan) | 0:03:07.52 | |
| 76 | Vedat Koç (Turkey) | 0:03:14.19 | |
| 77 | César Martingil (Portugal) | 0:03:14.55 | |
| 78 | Jared Said González (Mexico) | 0:03:16.84 | |
| 79 | Nijat Niftaliyev (Azerbaijan) | 0:03:20.26 | |
| 80 | Nikaj Iltian (Albania) | 0:03:37.12 | |
| 81 | Ekke-Kaur Vosman (Estonia) | 0:03:41.75 | |
| 82 | Kwong Lau (Hong Kong, China) | 0:03:53.78 | |
| 83 | Sapar Serdarov (Turkmenistan) | 0:03:54.70 | |
| 84 | Ridion Kopshti (Albania) | 0:03:56.55 |
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