Having won a stage of the Newry Three Day elite race last month, U16 rider Aliyah Rafferty has today taken a strong result in the road race at the European Youth Olympic Festival in Maribor, Slovenia.
When the field split on the final climb, Rafferty - who rides with Island Wheelers in Co Tyrone - showed she was among the strongest tier of riders in the 82-strong field from across Europe.
A five-rider group broke clear on the final climb about 6km from the finish and made it all the way to fight it out for the medals. Rafferty was not among them, but she got into the chasing group comprised of the next strongest 17 girls as the field split to pieces.
The Irish teenager finish in that chasing group, just 13 seconds down on the leaders, and placed 13th in the race. She said he was caught out of position on the final climb and had to make an effort to make up ground, as the five riders who stayed away were going clear.
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While the event was also a little shorter than she would have liked, she said she was happy with her result - coming two weeks after a bad racing crash - and felt confident before the start on the climbs. Rafferty added the British and Dutch teams were the strongest in the race, though they had watched each other, enabling the five riders get clear on the last passage of the climb close to the finish.
Rafferty added with road works and street furniture dotted around the circuit course, not to mention the race switching from very wide roads to narrow streets at several points, there were lots of crashes. Those included one she managed to avoid only by jumping up onto the pavement.
"I was really determined to do well so I am a little bit disappointed that I wasn't able to get into a better position for the climb on the last lap but, overall, I'm pretty happy with my result," she said.
Kate Murphy and Greta Lawless were also flying the flag for Ireland in the girls road race and placed 38th and 43rd respectively, both finishing in the bunch some 47 seconds down on the leaders. The race was won by Italian rider Linda Sanarini from Paula Jessica Ostiz Taco (Spain) and Maria Okrucinska (Poland).
