Rory Townsend wins the recent ADAC Cyclassics World Tour one-day race in German after a 187km breakaway on a day when none of the others on the attack survived out front (Photo: Szymon Gruchalski-Cor Vos)

By Shane Stokes

Rory Townsend took his biggest triumph yet the weekend before last, stunning the ADAC Cyclassics peloton to win the WorldTour event from a day-long break. But it seems a renewed contract with the Q36.5 Pro Cycling is not the obvious decision you might imagine it to be.

Townsend was today named on the Irish team for the elite men’s road race at the UCI World Road Championships in Rwanda next month while Q36.5 has also just signed Ireland’s Eddie Dunbar for the next two years. However, whether Townsend and Dunbar will be team mates next year remains to be seen.

“Future signings will be announced and we have already a big roster, so we are really limited in spaces at the moment,” the team’s head of performance Kurt Bogaerts told stickybottle this week. “So I don’t know how things will go.

“I think that was an amazing win by Rory. Also a nice win in the nationals. We will see. We will see where we will fill the last spots. And yeah, we’ll definitely be in a conversation with Rory and see what’s possible.

“I think most important thing is for him that he did a big win. I think that will open doors for him and also for the team. It was an amazing day. You could see from the emotions after the finish that everyone was super happy. And I think it opens perspective for both parties.”

Townsend wins the elite men’s road race at the National Road Championships in Co Meath in June, the second time he has won it in his career (Photo: Toby Watson)

Q36.5 Pro Cycling has been on a spending spree of late, announcing the signatures of Irish climber Eddie Dunbar, Chris Harper, Xandro Meurisse and Fred Wright. Twenty riders have contracts to 2026 or beyond, and five—Townsend included—have deals that end this season.

The 30 year old has been with the Pro Continental team for the past two years. He has played an important role, both in terms of helping others, and also in firing off long range attacks which have guaranteed the squad extra publicity and also helped make the case for wildcard invites.

The 30 year old has also clocked up many good performances, with a range of top ten showings in 1.Pro, 2.Pro and 1.1-ranked races in 2024. This year has been even better, with third, fifth and ninth on stages en route to sixth overall in the 2.Pro Boucles de la Mayenne, his Irish national championship victory and his win in the ADAC Cyclassics race last Sunday.

Bogaerts did not see the latter race firsthand, having been at Franco-Belge with others from the team, but watched it back afterwards and was impressed.

“He executed the final really well,” he said. “It is something you can look back on and say, ‘okay, when you’re in breakaway, make sure you have a bullet left if it stays away.’ Of course, if everyone thinks like that in breakaways [it would be a problem]…it’s finding the right balance. I think he did that, between commitment to the breakaway and being fresh enough to finish it off.”

Townsend was undoubtedly strong but the result was also a deserved result of his aggressive performances in many other events. He has been on the attack from early on in multiple races during his career, world championships included.

Bogaerts listed some of them off and they are the very biggest races in the sport.

“Fair play to him. He was in the breakaway in Gent-Wevelgem, the Tour of Flanders, in Roubaix,” he said. “He was a bit unfortunate sometimes in the breakaways, like with the puncture in Roubaix. But he put the team several times in a prime position.

“With the team growing in strength, it could be beneficial, a rider like this. I think he did many nice things for the team, and definitely the exposure is what it’s all about in the end. You want to put your brands into the TV, and the breakaway in the big races is definitely one of the ways.”

And sometimes those long-range gambles pay off. It takes strength, of course, and good tactics, and also an element of luck. Things finally went Townsend’s way last Sunday when he jumped clear of a three-man move with 400 metres to go and held off the peloton.

“There’s only so many breakaways that work out,” Bogaerts said. “So I think fair play to Rory on execution. I think he definitely had a good bullet left.”

The weeks ahead will show what effect that win has on his career trajectory. Whether Q36.5 Pro Cycling offer him an extension or not, logic suggests that his superb WorldTour victory should give him options for 2026.