WITH PHOTOS: An Post’s Downey has good day at Handzame against big guns

Downey looking good at Handzame today

An Post-Sean Kelly’s Sean Downey has said he was pleased with his ride in the Handzame Classic in Belgium today, the first occasion he has finished a 1.1 ranked race in the front group.

It was a reasonably good day for the whole team, with Gediminas Bagdonas showing no ill effects from his crash midweek, taking seventh in the finishing bunch sprint today. Niko Eeckhout spent most of the day in the escape that was eventually reeled in by the sprinters’ teams.

Downey said he had not been feeling well in recent days but felt good during the race.

“Yeah, I was very pleased with my ride,” he told stickybottle.

“For the last week and a bit I got sick and was riding badly; training was bad but now after today it has shows me that I can ride at this level. I’ve settled really well in Belgium generally; like home from home.”

With two large loops and six short steep climbs to take in before the race went onto the finishing circuit, Downey said he felt well able to play a part today but said the finale was fast and physical.

“The break went early, at the start; that was on flat roads and then the climbs broke the bunch up a bit. The run into the finish was very fast and the bunch starting breaking up on the finishing circuit. We caught the break on the circuit and then it was flat out to the finish.”

“I was always around the front staying out of trouble, or getting bottles and so on. And the legs were feeling good; just the finish was very fast and lots of pushing….. so the next step is to be up fighting at the finish, now that I know I can be up there.”

The bunch sprint was won by Franceso Chicchi (Omega Pharma-Quickstep), who was taken to the line with a great lead-out by An Post-Sean Kelly 2011 rider Andy Fenn. German sprinter Marcel Kittel (Project 1T4i) was second with the increasingly impressive young Briton Adam Blythe in third (BMC Racing Team).

That was a good ride today by Downey; he was in some pretty big company.

(See more photos after the result below)

Handzame Classic (1.1), 194.5 kilometres

1 Francesco Chicchi (Ita) Omega Pharma-Quickstep 4:10:00
2 Marcel Kittel (Ger) Project 1T4i
3 Adam Blythe (GBr) BMC Racing Team
4 Guillaume Boivin (Can) Spidertech Powered By C10
5 Kenny Robert Van Hummel (Ned) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team
6 Graeme Brown (Aus) Rabobank Cycling Team
7 Gediminas Bagdonas (Ltu) An Post - Sean Kelly
8 Boy Van Poppel (Ned) UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team
9 Kenny De Haes (Bel) Lotto Belisol Team
10 Nikolay Trusov (Rus) RusVelo

15. Roy Jan (Bel)
44. Sean Downey (Irl)
60. Mark Christian (Gbr)
66. Kenneth Van Bilsen (Bel) all same time
74. Pieter Ghyllebert (Bel) at 10 seconds
122. Niko Eeckhout (Bel) ag 2 minutes, 28 seconds