Owain Doull Produces A Classic To Bag Best Result Of His Road Career

Owain Doull claimed the biggest result of his road career with a superb second place at the Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne race in Belgium.

Wales’ Olympic track champ saw his late attack pay off in what should be a major breakthrough in his one-day Classics career.

“It’s unbelievable – it’s the biggest result of my career,” said a delighted Doull.

Owain Doull fended off his rivals at the finish to take second.

“With these races you believe you can do it, but until you actually do it you don’t know if you can. It’s a bit of a shock to be honest.

Doull, 25, launched an attack with around two kilometres of the 201.1km race left to take second ahead of the pack and 12 seconds behind winner Bob Jungels of Luxembourg who had broken clear with around 16km left.

The Cardiff-born rider had to dig deep in the finishing straight in Kuurne to bag the podium finish.

“I felt pretty good all day,” added Doull, whose contract with Team Sky – looking for a new major sponsor – runs out at the end of this year.

“The legs felt good and I was able to make that front split up the Kwaremont.

“Obviously, that move came back and then the race was full gas chasing the front five. It was always looking like we were never going to bring Jungels back, and with about 3km to go I saw the lead-outs trains and the chase really started to die and it almost stalled.

“So I thought right, I’m going to go full gas now. I managed to jump away with Lampaert, Terpstra and a guy from Lotto Soudal came with me. We kept pushing and the gap looked good.

“I knew it was going to be tight, so I knew I had to go with 350m to go and I managed to hold on.

“I’m super happy. I’ve changed a lot of stuff over this winter and I’ve re-focussed a few things and it’s all really starting to pay off now. It’s just nice to get that confirmation that all the hard work you’ve done over the winter building up to this has paid off.”

 

Owain Doull with race winner Bob Jungels and third placed Niki Terpstra

Team Sky’s race director Servais Knaven said: “Owain has really stepped up this year.

“We all knew he had the potential but his Classics showings didn’t work out like we all hoped in the first two years. But he’s making the next step now, or maybe five steps at once!

“Finishing second in this race and riding that final like he did is pretty impressive.”