Rafferty wins Irish junior TT title on road bike | "I’m super happy I could pull it off" | Sticky Bottle

*Aliyah Rafferty said racing the TT on her road bike was harder on her arms than it was on her legs, but she made it through with the gold medal (Photo: Sean Rowe)*

Aliyah Rafferty (Tofauti Everyone Active Majoco) went into last night's junior race at the National TT Championships hoping to join her brothers, Darren and Adam, as Irish title holders.

And while she came good on her plans, telling stickybottle afterwards she was delighted to win, the 17-year-old from Co Tyrone, literally, did it the hard way; riding a road bike.

She completed the 25.4km test in a time of 38:02, upgrading last year's silver medal to gold, and topping the podium on the night from Sophie English (Bohermeen CC) and Ffion Dolan (TC Racing).

"I had really high hopes but within the first 5k I punctured, so I stopped with the car and changed to my road bike," she said of disaster striking early in the TT in Kilbeggan, Co Westmeath, run by Lakeside Wheelers.

"I just tried my best to keep up the power on my bike but it was really difficult to try and stay in the aero position for the rest of the TT. It really hurt my arms almost as much as my legs.

"I was actually shocked when I won because I thought, with the tailwind on the way back, I definitely would’ve been a lot slower than everyone else on the TT bikes. But thankfully it was enough to win."

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Though she felt she stayed calm when she punctured, she forgot to take her Garmin off her TT bike, only for her brother Darren's girlfriend, Katie, to intervene quickly during the stop and switch the device top the spare bike.

With that quick thinking, Rafferty at least had the comfort of being able to gauge her numbers over the remaining near-20km of the TT. That meant her sole focus could go into getting as much out of herself despite the unexpected change of bike.

"I’m really delighted, it’s what I wanted before the face. But with the puncture…. Yeah, I’m super happy that I could still pull it off."

Last year Rafferty was 2nd in both the TT and road race at the Nationals, beaten in both by her former team mate, Lucy Bénézet Minns. But with TT gold, and an Irish champion's jersey, now in the bag she said she was really looking forward to Sunday's road race.

"’ll try my best and see how it goes," she said. "Nationals is always a very different race to usual, you never really know how it is going to pan out. But I’m hopeful for Saturday."

Junior Women 25.4km