Frawley takes Markievicz Cup in Sligo, late surge denies Flaherty

Martin Frawley on his way to winning in Sligo today

By Brian Canty

Galway Bay CC rider Liam Frawley produced a great show of strength to capture the Markievicz Cup in Coolaney, Co Sligo today.

The rail-thin climber showed his worth on the long drag up to the finish to edge out JJ Flaherty of Western Lakes CC who had initiated the winning move and looked set to take the win until Frawley came round him in the closing stages.

The remainder of the 65-strong peloton sprinted in shortly after for the remaining four places.

Blue skies and near-perfect racing conditions greeted the riders this afternoon with the handicapped-nature of the event making for some cracking racing.

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The A4 and Junior riders were first off and they were given a generous four-minute buffer over the A3 group who in turn had three minutes of an advantage to the A2 riders.

The latter group of riders co-operated well together and caught the A3 group after two of the six 13 kilometres laps, with the A4's and Junior's still out front.

The gap was, however, dwindling rapidly and a combination of tiredness from the men up front, as well as an increasingly co-operative chase behind shaved their lead and with two laps to go the race was all back together.

Again, it was the Western Lakes and Galway Bay contingent who did most of the riding and a number of strong pulls on the front by Flaherty and Frawley succeeded in whittling down the bunch.

Inevitably, a group got away with less than two laps to go, with upwards of 10 riders in the move. However, they were caught approaching the last lap to set up a tense finale.

Flaherty seized the initiative and took off with around one lap left to race and he looked like he would solo to a magnificent win. But Frawley attacked after him and with 5km to go caught him and then charged past him to take a memorable win.

Mark Potts, winner of the East Tyrone Ciclisport GP last weekend was next over the line with Aidan Reade of the Black Rose team in fourth.