Rory Townsend takes Elite Irish National Road title

Rory Townsend has won the Elite Irish National Road Race Championships for the first time in his career today after a gutsy performance in Kanturk.

The 26-year old crossed the finish line with 26 seconds to spare on runner-up Cormac McGeough (Wildlife Generation Pro Cycling) and broke down in tears as the enormity of his achievement began to sink in.

Townsend was close to quitting the sport a couple of years ago as he searched in vain for a professional contract, but with Covid wreaking havoc with the sport and teams trimming rosters, he made the difficult decision to return to education, but stay involved in cycling at an amateur level.

"It's absolutely mental, I can't really believe it at the moment," he said after pulling on the national champion's jersey.

"Just… everything went right today, I’m so glad."

Riding for UK-based continental team, WiV SunGod, Townsend came into the contest on the back of an excellent Rás Tailteann where he finished fourth overall and won a stage.

"I said if I could get through the (Rás) week and have a successful week, but also just stay out of trouble and avoid getting ill and stuff, then I knew I’d be in good shape for this.

"I remember when Ben Healy won the champs (in 2020), he had a similar prep; a good stage race coming into it that year and he was untouchable today. And I was just sort of trying to emulate that today."

On a grim day for racing, with heavy rain drenching a dwindling peloton, Townsend rode from the front and managed to escape in an early breakaway alongside the aforementioned McGeough as well as U23 gold medal winner Dean Harvey (Spellman Dublin Port) and last year’s U23 winner John Buller (Amicale Cycliste Bisontine).

The latter found the pace too hot to handle when the local