Tour of Fuzhou: Rory Townsend wins stage 2

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Irishman Rory Townsend of Canyon DHB won stage 2 of the Tour of Fuzhou  in China as he outsprinted Australia's Blake Quick of St George and his British teammate Charles Page in a bunch gallop in Mawei.

The 23.6km loop, covered five times, was exposed to the wind, which led to a very animated race but no damage in the crosswinds. Dutchman Maarten De Jonge represented Monkey Town at the front along with Chinese riders from Hengxiang and Giant who rode away in several waves.

Russian track rider Nikita Bersenev was last to surrender from the break with 10km to go, and the Russian national team also launched the sprint. Hot favorite Quick came out of their slipstream on the right hand side of the road while Townsend and Page were quicker on the left side with the help of the three-quarter tail wind.

"Sprinting isn't necessarily something I'm specialized in but something I've definitely tried to improve over the years", said Townsend, 24, after his first professional victory. "I spent a lot of time in the gym and things like that. I tend to be sort of a fast finisher in a small group.

"That's the type of rider I'd like to be. Recently I've won the sprints jersey at the Tour of Britain. After Max [Stedman] suffered the heat yesterday we turned our attention to stages with myself and Charles [Page] who is a lead out man and a good sprinter in his own right.

"The finish was so hectic, I ended up opening the sprint with Charles on my wheel, so finish first and third was a good result for us. I got brought up really nicely by Ryan Christensen, my teammate. The sprinter from St George who is very quick [Quick] had been in the wind for quite a while, so I was confident when I opened up my sprint.

"It's really nice to get a win", Townsend added. "That's what we came here for. It takes a good feeling into winter, I mean the months that come ahead. It's a good thing to have going to next season as well."

Both Irish and English, the 24 year old from Kingston-upon-Thames had a difficult start of the year with breaking an arm in Mallorca but he had an excellent weekend of French pro racing at the end of March as he finished third in the Classic Loire- Atlantique and took king of the mountains of Cholet-Pays de la Loire he following day.

No changes occurred in the overall classification of the Tour of Fuzhou with stage 1 winner Ilya Davidenok retaining the lead after keeping the situation under control.