Adam Rafferty took the best result of the Irish junior team at the LVM Saarland Trofeo UCI Nations Cup stage race in Germany. The 17-year-old from Co Tyrone, who is riding for French outfit Team 31 Jolly Cycles U19 this year, put in a very strong performance to take 6th in the 10km individual TT in Zweibrücken.
Rafferty was just 12 seconds down on winner Jørgen Nordhagen (Norway), who has already won two Nations Cup stage races this year. Seth Dunwoody of Team Ireland also put in a solid ride in the TT to claim 17th place, of 116 starters, and he was 35 seconds down on stage winner Nordhagen.
The race was cut short when yesterday's final stage was cancelled due to a crash. That meant Louis Leidert (Germany), who had the yellow jersey after the stage 3b TT, was declared overall winner by 11 seconds from Denmark's Patrick Boje Frydkjær. British rider Tomos Pattinson was 3rd overall at 18 seconds.
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Patrick Casey, who has been riding a busy schedule of races in Europe this season and more than holding his own, was best of the Irish team overall. He ended the race 26th at 3:59 after what was a bruising four stages of racing over three days.
The field split to pieces on all three road stages, on courses that did not include high mountains but featured repeated short and sharp climbs.
Rafferty, Casey and Dunwoody all finished stage 1 - some 109km from Neunkirchen to Friedrichsthal - in 68th, 86th and 89th some 2:21 down on the nine-rider front group. On stages 2 and 3 Casey was best placed of the Irish. On the 112km stage 2 - from Sarreguemines to Bitche - Casey was 32nd at 30 seconds. On stage 3a - some 116km from Niederwürzbach to Aßweiler- Casey placed 34th at 1:00.
Overall, aside from Casey finished 26th at 3:59, Rafferty was 43rd at 8:52, Dunwoody placed 80th at 21:46, Oisin Ferrity was 104th at 30:59 and Samuel Coleman was 109th at 36:08. The sixth member of the team, Liam O'Brien, was a non-finisher on the opening stage.
