Fifth for cyclist Craig in Mayo race

The tour consisted of three days of racing over four stages. Fifty riders set off for stage one and after four King of the Hills 23 riders were at the finish to contest the sprint that was won by Matthew Davies from the Isle of Man.

Day two started with a 2.5mile tt in the morning where Manuel Kleist of RSG Frankfurt, Germany, took the win, with the Ballymena boys finishing Craig 4th, Aaron 14th and Adam 38th.

A few hours later the boys started stage three another 18mile race and now Craig was 2nd overall 6 seconds down on the leader, and Aaron was third in the U-13 section. After another hard stage and crashes the peloton hurtled into Kiltimagh for the uphill finish where Darragh Long was the victor.

Last stage was a crit race round four streets of Kiltimagh that was going to serve up fast and furious racing from all age groups. Craig still was 6 sec down on the leader and would find it hard to make up the lost time. This was the first time the boys took part in a proper crit where they raced for thirty minutes plus three laps. Race started with the boys from Munster looking after their yellow jersey by lining the race out all the way to the finish.

During the race if you were 45sec or more behind the leader in the thirty minutes you retired from the race leaving just fifteen riders at the finish.

Unfortunately for Craig he lost contact with the leading six riders at the start of the last three laps losing 31 seconds on winner of the stage Jamie Dudley, Isle of Man who completed the race with an average speed of 23mph, but more importantly time on overall winner Michael O'Loughlin of Munster.

A great weekend's racing for the trio from Ballymena where overall they finished Craig Crawford 5th, Aaron Swan 18th and Adam Kerr 27th.