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Tour of the Sperrins

Cookstown, June 22, 2003

Evans best in Tour of the Sperrins

By Shane Stokes

TotalCycling.com/Lindsay Ford rider Tommy Evans took his sixth victory since his stage win in the FBD Milk Ras last month when he won the Tour of the Sperrins in Cookstown on Sunday.

Following on from his win in the Ulster road race championships, the northern rider has highlighted his good form for this weekend's national road race championships and will be motivated to improve on his bronze medal of last year.

The race was marked by an early breakaway by St. Tiernan's duo Brian Lennon and Dylan Rafter, who went clear in a small group almost from the drop of the flag. Finding that the other riders in the break were not contributing, Lennon took them out the back one by one and then set about building a good lead with Rafter, opening a gap of over one minute. The duo worked well together until the first KOM prime eighteen miles into the race, at Mount Hamilton, where Lennon drew clear and took maximum points at the top. Behind, the bunch had been led at full pace by Evans' Totalcycling.com/Lindsay Ford team for several miles, and their furious chase paved the way for the in-form Belfast man and a small group of other riders to jump across the gap going over the top of the climb.

Once passed, Rafter drifted backwards but Lennon remained up front, pressing on with Evans, Matthew Ward (Phoenix CC) and Harps CC's Paul Bloomer and establishing a maximum lead of one minute thirty seconds. Ward lost contact at Gortin, fifteen miles from the finish, and Bloomer suffered a similar fate when Evans attacked with six miles remaining. That paved the way for a two up sprint with Lennon, which went to the new Ulster road race champion and brought him his sixth win in recent weeks. Lennon had the consolation of the King of the Mountains prize.

Bloomer held on for third place, while Stamullen M. Donnelly rider Craig Sweetman and Rafter jumped clear of the bunch to take fourth and fifth, one minute and thirty seconds off the winning time of Evans.

Results, 100 km

1 Tommy Evans (TotalCycling.com/Lindsay Ford)      2.26.26
2 B. Lennon (St. Tiernan's CC)
3 P. Bloomer (Harps CC)                               0.40
4 C. Sweetman (Stamullen M. Donnelly)                 1.30
5 D. Rafter (St. Tiernans)
6 L. Kirk (Ards CC)
7 M. Ward (Phoenix CC)
8 S. Mulvenny (Stamullen M. Donnelly)
9 P. Brady (McQuaid Tyres Emycale CC)
10 F. Duncan (Northern CC Dave Kane Cycles)
 
King of the mountains: B. Lennon (St. Tiernan's CC)
 
Unplaced senior 2: P. Marshall (Toyota North Down CC)
 
Unplaced senior 3: K. Dolan (Cuchullain CC)
 
Unplaced veteran: B. Marshall (Toyota North Down CC)
 
Under 16
 
1 Mark McGirr (Lakeland CC)
2 B. Henning (Newry Haldane Fisher CC)
3 G. McAdam (McQuaid Tyres Emyvale CC)
 
Under 14
 
1 Thomas Martin (Clann Eireann)
2 J. Kane (McQuaid TyresEmyvale CC)
3 B. Hughes (McQuaid TyresEmyvale CC)

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