Healy, Rafferty and Murphy amongst National Championship winners in Nenagh
(Photo: Inpho/Bryan Keane)
First year WorldTour professional Ben Healy showed his strength at the national time trial championships on Thursday evening, blitzing around a 32.13 kilometre course in Nenagh to win the Elite men’s event. The 21 year old beat both George Peden (Team PB Performance) and Eddie Dunbar (Ineos Grenadiers) by one minute 32 seconds, landing his first win since turning pro with EF Education-EasyPost this year.
“I was a bit unsure to start with, but as soon as I set off I knew I had pretty good legs,” he said. “It was slower on the way out, so I went a bit hard and kind of suffered on the way back, but I had a bit of a positive split so it worked out all right in the end.”
He will now wear the distinctive national champion’s jersey in time trial events for the next 12 months.
“That is really cool. I had the jersey before but never had it at the WorldTour stage,” he said. “So to win that is a nice feeling. I am sure Rapha will do an outstanding job of designing an outstanding jersey for us.
The 2018 and 2019 champion Kelly Murphy clocked up a third gold medal in the women’s race, taking a close victory over Joanna Patterson (Independent Pedaler – Nopinz). She beat last year’s winner by 1.12 seconds, with the champion from two years ago Eve McCrystal (Bellurgan Wheelers) netting third.
She said that she didn’t know right away that she was on such a good ride.
“I haven’t done so much this year. Because track and road collide I have been taking a slightly easier season. I’ve had a few good times out but it was in different places against different people. So when you come here, you should never take anything for granted.
“It was a nice, pleasant surprise and that doesn’t happen often in time trial.”
Darren Rafferty shrugged off the fact that he has just stepped up from junior ranks this year, with last year’s road race and time trial champion in that age group taking the under 23 title.
The Hagens Berman Axeon rider beat the defending champion Kevin McCambridge (Trinity Racing) by 23 seconds, with Adam Ward (Team SmartDry Girona Cycling City) third.
“I put in a pretty solid performance. I am happy with the power and happy with how I performed,” he said. “The longer time trial suited me, so I was happy with how it went. I couldn’t really have asked for much more on the day. It was my best time and my best performance so if someone had beaten me, then that would have been fine. I was content with what I had done. So a good performance from myself.”
Conal Scully (Carlow RCC) beat Quillan Donnelly (Usher Irish Road Club) by 15 seconds to take the junior men’s gold medal. Shauna Finn (Newcastle West Cycling Club) was best of the junior women, beating Katie Reilly (Orwell Wheelers Cycling Club) by 1.8 seconds.
Declan Slevin (Rosemount Cycling Club) took the handbike championship ahead of Allister MacSorley (Unattached Ulster) and Ray Murnane (Unattached Munster).
Triple Paralympic gold medallist Katie-George Dunlevy teamed up with pilot Linda Kelly to win the tandem event, beating Damien Vereker and Marcin Mizgajski (Comeragh CC) into second and Josephine Healion and Francine Meehan (Tullamore CTC) into third.
William Clifford (Galway Bay CC) triumphed in the C Class ahead of Richael Timothy (Castlerea Cycling Club) and Scott Drummond (Cork County CC).
Next up are the road race events, which will see the riders fight it out for more national titles on Saturday and Sunday in Kanturk.
National time trial championships, Nenagh, Co. Tipperary (32.13 kilometres)
Image Gallery - Inpho Photography/Bryan Keane
Elite men:
1, Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) 37 mins 50.33 secs
2, George Peden (Team PB Performance) at 1 min 32.56 secs
3, Eddie Dunbar (Ineos Grenadiers) at 1 min 32.61 secs
4, James Jenkins (Richardsons Trek DAS) at 2 mins 4.75 secs
5, Marcus Christie (Banbridge CC) at 2 mins 43.52 secs
6, Dillon Corkery (CC Etupes Le Doubs, Pays De Montbeliard) at 2 mins 46.91 secs
7, Mitchell McLaughlin (EvoPro Racing) at 3 mins 33 secs
8, Cian Keogh (EvoPro Racing) at 4 mins 18.85 secs
9, Michael Phelan (Spellman-Dublin Port) at 5 mins 3.63 secs
10, Cian Ibbotson (McNally Swords CC) at 5 mins 51.54 secs
Under 23 men:
1, Darren Rafferty (Hagens Berman Axeon) 39 mins 36.8 secs
2, Kevin McCambridge (Trinity Racing) at 23.19 secs
3, Adam Ward (Team SmartDry Girona Cycling City) at 3 mins 44.63 secs
4, Jason Kenny (UCD Cycling Club) at 3 mins 59.52 secs
5, Stefan Caulfield-Dreier (Spellman-Dublin Port) at 5 mins 4.44 secs
Elite Women:
1, Kelly Murphy (Unattached) 44 minutes 5.43 secs
2, Joanna Patterson (Independent Pedaler – Nopinz) at 1.12 secs
3, Eve McCrystal (Bellurgan Wheelers) at 58.4 secs
4, Annalise Murphy (Unattached Leinster) at 1 min 59.78 secs
5, Lauren Creamer (Velo Fixers) at 5 mins 19.39 secs
6, Jennifer Neenan (Sundrive Track Team) at 6 mins 11.46 secs
7, Jennifer Bates (Torelli-Assure-Cayman Islands-Scimitar) at 7 mins 58.62 secs
8, Caoimhe May (Orwell Wheelers Cycling Club) at 8 mins 52.28 secs
9, Eve McDermott (Lynx Cycling Club) at 17 mins 34.62 secs
Junior men:
1, Conal Scully (Carlow RCC) 41 mins 51.91 secs
2, Quillan Donnelly (Usher Irish Road Club) at 15.72 secs
3, Adam Rafferty (US Colomiers) at 39.95 secs
4, Liam O’Brien (Fermoy Cycling Club) at 1 min 21.26 secs
5, Curtis Neill (Carn Wheelers) at 1 min 27.49 secs
6, Finn McHenry (The Cycling Academy) at 3 mins 32.09 secs
7, Sean Tarrant (O’Leary Stone Kanturk) at 7 mins 55.52 secs
8, Timothy Lane (JRC Interflon Race Team) at 8 mins 4.09 secs
Junior women:
1, Shauna Finn (Newcastle West Cycling Club) 52 mins 26.94 secs
2, Katie Reilly (Orwell Wheelers Cycling Club) at 1.8 secs
3, Erin Grace Creighton (McConvey Cycles) at 39.9 secs
Handbikes – Factored
1, Declan Slevin (Rosemount Cycling Club)
2, Allister MacSorley (Unattached Ulster)
3, Ray Murnane (Unattached Munster)
C Class – factored:
1, William Clifford (Galway Bay CC)
2, Richael Timothy (Castlerea Cycling Club)
3, Scott Drummond (Cork County CC)
4, Chris Burns (Banbridge CC)
5, Ivan Naluswa (Reservoir Cogs)
6, Aidan Mullane (Bottecchia Racing Club)
7, Thomas Murphy (Clonard RC)
Para Tandems – factored:
1, Katie-George Dunlevy and Linda Kelly (Donegal Bay Cycling Club)
2, Damien Vereker and Marcin Mizgajski (Comeragh CC)
3, Josephine Healion and Francine Meehan (Tullamore CTC)