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Dundalk Traders Cycle Cup

April 27, 2003

Rafter takes Dundalk Traders Cup

By Shane Stokes

One point off an "A" licence following a second place in the Stamullen GP plus third and fifth on stages of the Gorey 3 day, St. Tiernan"s rider Dylan Rafter yesterday secured his category upgrade in style when he won the Dundalk Traders Cycle Cup race. The St. Tiernan"s rider went clear in the closing stages of the 63 mile event, racing alone into the finish with a 20 second lead.

Prior to the race, Rafter had decided to back off for a few more weeks before moving up, resolving to ride for his team-mates rather than going for placings himself. So, when he and Andy Lakes moved clear in a 15 rider breakaway group 2 miles into the 63 mile event, things looked to be going to plan. "Myself and Andy got into the early move and we rode hard to open up the gap over the main bunch," he said afterwards. "There were a lot of people sitting on but with a few of us going through, we opened up a gap of about 2 minutes."

Going onto the final lap, 13 riders remained up front, including the in-form Stamullen M. Donnelly rider Colm Crawely, who rode strongly last weekend in Gorey. The group was a bit too big so Rafter decided to try to break things up a bit in order to improve Lakes" chances in the sprint. But when he applied the pressure, he found himself clear of the break. "I went to the front and put up the speed a bit, but when I looked back I was moving away from them. Although I wasn't going flat out, I had a good gap so I decided to keep going. I had wanted to hold off a little longer before getting the A licence, but I had also told myself that if I had the chance to actually win a race, I wasn't going to turn it down..."

Next across the line was Crawley, who won a hard fought sprint over Michael Greene from the Phoenix club and Navan Avonmore's Derek Finnegan. Lennie Kirk (Ards CC) bested Emerald rider Oliver McQuaid and Totalcycling.com's Bo Graham in the senior 3/veterans contest.

Results, 63 miles

1 Dylan Rafter (St. Tiernan"s CC)
2 C. Crawley (Stamullen M. Donnelly RC)   0.20
3 M. Greene (Phoenix CC Belfast)
4 D. Finnegan (Navan Avonmore RC)
5 N. Campbell (unattached)
6 K. Daly (McNally Swords CC)
 
Senior 3/Veterans
 
1 Lennie Kirk (Ards CC)
2 O. McQuaid (Emerald CC)
3 B. Graham (Totalcycling.com)

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