McCrystal Takes Junior Tour of Ireland Title with National Team
Rían McCrystal was crowned champion of Quanta Capital Junior Tour of Ireland in Co. Clare yesterday.
The Cannibal B Victorious rider was named in the National Team for this year’s race, his first experience of Ireland’s premiere junior stage race. McCrystal took the stage win on Stage 3 into Whitegate before taking another stage win on Stage 4 from Ennis to Kilfenora. Despite losing yellow for the final stage to Lucas Lillistone of Halesown Academy-Mapei, McCrystal’s second place finish on the final stage was enough to see him take yellow again and the overall race win.
In taking the yellow race winners jersey McCrystal also took the Points Classification prize and the First Year Junior prize.
Speaking afterwards McCrystal reiterated “the goal coming in was to learn. I wanted a stage win but this year the goal was just to learn. To get the stage I was just over the moon and getting into yellow was even better again.” On briefly losing yellow he reflected “We still believed in ourselves [coming into the final stage]. It was a team effort all day, they helped me through the bunch all day and honestly just to keep the trophy in Ireland for another year is just a bonus again.”
It was a true team effort throughout the week, with National Team riders incredibly active for the duration.
Despite holding the King of the Mountains jersey for several days, a crash on the penultimate day meant Hugh Óg Mulhearne did not start the final stage.
Mulhearne’s AS Villemur Cyclisme clubmate Darragh Byrne, making his National Team debut this week, was next highest finishing Cycling Ireland rider in 20th.
James Armstrong took second in the road race at this year’s National Championships and continued his aggressive racing this week with the National Team featuring in breakaways from early in the week.
Fionn Killeen made his national team debut as a junior at Rás Tailteann earlier this summer and relished another opportunity to battle international level competition this week and took 37th overall.
A massive thank you to organisers, volunteers, teams and riders for their commitment to this event and bringing some of the best international talent to Irish roads again this year.