Mark Downey is just about edged out for his first win of the season when he interrupted his track Worlds training for a spot of road racing.
Fresh from an elite UCI World Cup win on the track over the winter and now with two European Championships medals in his trophy cabinet, Mark Downey has been in road action again.
Though gearing up for the World Track Championships shortly, Downey is in Majorca training on the velodrome and roads for the Worlds and has been competing against some WorldTour men.
Riding the IV Classica Dels Murs yesterday, new CC Etupes rider Downey got into the winning breakaway which included a couple of riders from WorldTour team FDJ.
With a climb of about 400 metres topping out at 27 per cent each lap, they pulled out a racing winning gap on the rest of the field and at the end Downey was just edged out by FDJ’s Odd Christian Eiking.
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The races on Majorca are open to amateurs and pros and with many top road and track riders training permanently on the island the local road races usually feature some very good talent.
Fintan Ryan is another of the Irish riders to have done well in these races in recent years, putting manners on some of the top international track stars and splitting the Spanish madison world champions on one occasion last year.
Downey had a bike-mounted camera on for yesterday's race, have a look at his footage of the finishing sprint below.
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