When Rory Townsend, 30, never before a winner of a WorldTour race, never even part of a WorldTour squad, won the ADAC Cyclassics (formerly known as the Hamburg Classic) last weekend, there was a reason why he was gobsmacked and in utter disbelief, his hands on his head. And it wasn’t just limited to how he did it, impossibly denying A-list sprinters to win from the breakaway by a bike length. It was because his backstory never suggested that it would lead to this moment, a winner of a top-level race, the first Q36.5 rider to win a WorldTour event, before even Tom Pidcock had done so for the Swiss team.

Townsend, in retrospect harsh on himself, describes himself as forever having imposter syndrome, not quite believing he was good enough. Twelve years of racing, more than a decade of ploughing away at low-level races “where there’s only one man and his dog”, attests to that. “I never thought I’d be riding here, with the journey I’ve had, and never anticipated such a situation,” he tells Rouleur in the days after his biggest ever victory. But now he can finally believe he does belong. “Now it’s adjusting that mindset to not looking up to other riders, but going toe to toe with them,” he smiles.

This article was published by Rouleur in August 2025. You can read the full article here.