The final day of action for the 2024 Cycling Ireland Road National Championships, hosted by Newcastle West Cycling Club, saw the Junior Women and the Elite Men take to the Co. Limerick roads for the National Champions jersey.
Darren Raffety for EF Education won the Elite Men Road Race despite two bike changes due to mechanical issues.
Former Rás Tailteann winner Dillon Corkery finished in second place.
Rafferty and Corkery pulled away from the other riders as they began the small five inner laps. The pair worked well together, but with 11km to go, Corkey cramped up, and Raffety rode away. Corkery closed the gap again but, in the end, had to settle for second.
Rory Townsend claimed third place ahead of Dean Harvey who picked up the jersey for winning the Under 23 National Road Race Championship.
“I think I had my expectations pretty low after Thursday’s kind of disappointing Time Trial,” said Rafferty after the race.
“I wanted to redeem myself a bit but didn’t really think that I had the legs or the fitness to get a good result.”
“I thought I’d see how it all plays out with all the stronger riders in the field, and I thought it was Townsend and Eddie’s to lose, so I kind of leaned on them a bit. And also it was nice racing for the first time again with my brother, it was cool. He got in the first attack with Eddie. I tried to let that group of four get a bit of a gap and try and get them ahead. Then a group of five of us jumped across, then we had a good strong group of nine – that was the break for the day.”
“The final climb was a lot harder the sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth time; I just dug in and pushed for the line; lucky enough, I managed to hold on.”
It certainly was a special day for the Rafferty family, with two brothers in action in the Elite Men and their sister Aliyah finishing as runner-up in the Junior Women category.
Returning Junior Women National Champion Lucy Bénézet Minns has shown great form this year, and she added to her tally on Sunday, claiming her third national road title in two years.
Last year, she claimed both the Junior Women’s Time Trial and Road National Championship. Today, she finished over five minutes ahead of her nearest rival in the Junior Women’s Road Race.
“It was a good race, nice course – it was hard but not so difficult that it was going to blow the race apart straight away, it was a nice course, she said.
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