Great racing in Boucles de la Mayenne

David González, Kamil Małecki, Rory Townsend, Giacomo Nizzolo, Joey Pidcock and Jannik Steimle represented the Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team led by Théo Ouvrard. They started with a 5,4 kilometer prologue on Thursday night.

Rory Townsend clocked the third time.

He said: “Théo and I have been working on the time trial bike a bit more with this prologue and the national championships in mind. It was a short effort that suits me well. I did a lot of recon and really put the power on the climbs. The guy who won beat me by six seconds which is enough of a margin to not have regrets thinking: ‘I could have done more here or there.’ Strangely it’s almost better to be beaten like this rather than a close margin, so in the end I was happy with the result”

The Irishman started the first road stage in the King of the Mountains jersey. Townsend helped sprinter Giacomo Nizzolo to achieve a fifth place.

“I wish I could have done a bit more for Giacomo but thankfully David was very strong on the climbs too. My rear tyre lost air in the final so that was a bit frustrating but Giacomo managed fifth in a hectic finale where one guy rode clear of the bunch.”

The second stage was the hardest one. It was not only 210 kilometers but also featured well over 3,000 meters of elevation due the quick succession of many small climbs. In a very agressive race Rory sprinted to fifth and kept his place in the top of the general classifcation.

Rory Townsend: “This stage was brutal. It’s really amazing having someone like Giacomo in a team role on a day like this. He is so experienced and helped me positon well, like the other guys did for all these climbs we had. They worked so well for me all day. David was there for me on the final three climbs and he covered many moves. That cost him his place in group one. I could stay in that group thanks to their work and sprint to fifth, or third in the bunch because there were two guys ahead. My legs were cramping up but overall it’s quite positive.”

The final day was fast because the general classifcation was a game of seconds resulting in a big fight for the bonus seconds. Rory was involved in a crash but fought on and secured sixth overall. Giacomo sprinted to sixth. 

Giacomo Nizzolo said:

“Today was a crazy hard stage with a fight for the breakaway taking over 60 kilometers. It was like this every day in Mayenne. Today we had Rory in the overall so that was a priority and we focused on the bonus sprints too. I helped him in the final to position and lead him out but he didn’t get past me in the end. The top tens every day showed we were really in the race as a team and fought for the results every day.”