RUSS DOWNING WINS STAGE OF CINTURON

Thursday was a good day for the British in bunch sprints. Whilst Mark Cavendish won one in De Panne, Russ Downing (Pinarello RT) won another on stage two of the Cinturon de Mallorca.

The stage starting and finishing in Port de Pollenca on the northern side of Mallorca included ascents of the Soller and Puig Mayor climbs, considered the two hardest climbs of the island.

On the second, the Puig Mayor (first category) the bunch split apart and an 11-man break went clear, including Downing and Dan Fleeman (An Post-M. Donnelly-Grant Thornton-Sean Kelly). Fleeman placed sixth at the summit, Downing ninth.

But race leader Jorg Lehmann (Ista) reacted behind and got two of his team-mates across. By the descent, 17 riders were ahead, with Spanish team Burgos Monumental doing a lot of the work to keep it clear.

However, German squad Sparkasse, who had no riders in the move, brought back the break three kilometres from the finish and Downing was fastest in the 40-man bunch sprint that followed.

Second was Christoph Schweizer (Vlassenroot), with Briton Dan Lloyd (An Post-M.Donelly-Grant-Thornton-Sean Kelly) in fifth.

Overall Lehmann remains in the lead, although Lloyd is lying fifth.

The Cinturon, a prestigious 2.2 category race, continues on Friday with a 134.4 kilometre stage starting and finishing in Inca. It finishes on Sunday.

1 Russ Downing (GB) Pinarello 131.6km in 3hr 24min 31sec

2 Christoph Schweizer (Ger) Vlassenroot

3 Paidi O'Brien (irl) An Post-M.Donelly-Grant Thornton-Sean Kelly

4 Mathias Belka (Ger) LKT

5 Dan Lloyd (GB) An Post-M.Donelly-Grant Thornton-Sean Kelly same time

1 Jorg Lehmann (Ger) Ista 03hr 33min 09sec

2 Dirk Muller (Ger) Sparkasse at 1sec

3 Christoph Meschenmoser (Ger) Ista at 7sec

4 Mathhias Brandle (Aut) Ista same time

5 Dan Lloyd (GB) An Post-M.Donnelly-Grant Thornton-Sean Kelly at 8sec