TOMMY EVANS of the Derry team held on to his lead to win the FBD Milk Ras, which ended yesterday in Swords, but the outcome was in doubt right to the end, with Evans challenged all the way by his team mate, David McCann.
After nine stages and a total of 835 miles the margin in favour of Evans over McCann was just 24 seconds, but there were occasions on the last two days when McCann went ahead and posed a big threat.
For a while during Saturday's 103 miles from Donegal to Newry, McCann was leader on the road and at the finish he reduced his deficit from a minute and 48 seconds to 25 seconds. McCann only pulled one more second back when he was third in one of the five bonus sprints on the finishing circuit in Swords, but on the fifth of the 10 laps he went away from Evans and gained 12 seconds.
A furious chase was necessary for Evans to get back up to McCann who was obviously out to grab any opportunity that arose.
Derry, managed by Scot Sandy Gilchrist and sponsored by Clarke Brothers of Portglenone, were the best team and they carried off the bulk of the £8 780 prize money so they were not among the most popular squads.
With Evans and McCann were Paul Giles, who won two stages Barry Monaghan and Denis Easton. At just five feet six inches and weighing nine stone 10 lbs 23 year old Evans from Banbridge was one of the smallest in the race but he is one of the toughest as he displays when pounding a huge gear so effectively.
None of the previous three winners were successful on a stage but Evans won into Castlebar when he led McCann in.
Regarding Olympic selection national team director, Alasdair MacLennan said he would wait and see how the riders came out of the Ras before he considered any alterations to his short list.
Of MacLennan's Ireland selection Peter Daly was best with a stage win and sixth overall but he missed out on a place on the podium when he lost the lead in the points classification on Saturday to Jeff Wright of England North East, who was also King of the Mountains.
Micheal Fitzgerald, number one on the Irish team, was out of contention overall from an early stage because of illness but he recovered well and won the final stage. Leslie McKay retired after a fall yesterday and Mark Hutton was among the non finishers on Friday.
After 36 miles on Saturday a breakaway group of 13 formed and McCann was there with Giles, Luckwell and Scot Roddy Riddle, who was in fifth place overall.
Although McCann did not contribute much to the pacemaking the lead went to a minute and 50 seconds at 67 miles and that made McCann the leader on the road. The lead remained at around the same until 75 miles and then there was some reaction from behind and a few surges from Evans reduced the gap to less than a minute at Armagh, 83 miles.
Then McCann took over at the front from Wright, South Africans Damian Booth and John Paul Furus, who had been doing most of the work at the front, and the lead opened up again.
On the hectic run into Newry Wright sprinted ahead for his second stage win with McCann second ahead of Luckwell. A minute and 23 seconds elapsed before Evans arrived.
The red Derry jerseys were to the fore yesterday in the rain as they kept a steady pace going for Evans, but on the finishing circuit the speed went up with sprints at, the end of every second lap.
After Adrian Hederman and Denis O'Shea had won the first two sprints, Fitzgerald broke away with Marcus Lemm of Germany and they quickly gained a good lead. However, McCann picked up a second for third place and he was then 12 seconds ahead of the main pack, including Evans.
Next time around McCann was still 10 seconds ahead of Evans but the race leader then went to the front of the group and McCann was reeled in before another lap was completed.
Fitzgerald and Lemm stayed clear by 30 seconds and Fitzgerald sprinted ahead up along the finishing straight to win. Another German, Hennes, led the bunch in for third place, but Evans was safely there with McCann alongside.
