Erin Creighton starts well at junior world track championships with fourth placed finish

Erin Creighton got her junior world track championship campaign off to a superb start on Wednesday, taking fourth in the elimination race in Tel Aviv. The event was won by the Czech rider Barbara Nemcova.

”My goal for the race was just to be comfortable moving around the bunch and getting into good positions so I’m really happy with how the race went,” said Creighton. “But it’s obviously a bit frustrating to be so close to a medal.

”We’ve had the luxury of having two training camps in Gent coming into worlds which helped us get some well needed track time that I think I was lacking at Europeans.”

There was a big crash early on the race which caused it to be stopped and then later restarted. This prompted Creighton to try to stay out of trouble. “After the restart I just tried to get back to the front and into a safe position but there were a few times where I had to put in a big effort so when it came down to the sprint I just didn’t have the legs and was eliminated.”

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She is due to compete in the points race on Friday and then in the Madison race with Aoife O’Brien on Saturday.

”For the remaining races I have, my main goal is just to get experience riding in a bunch on the track,” Creighton said. “But obviously coming so close to a medal today has made me realise a medal might be in reach for me so fingers crossed.”

O’Brien completed her first race at the championships on Tuesday, taking 12th in the scratch race. She is competing in the four-race Omnium event on Thursday.

Meanwhile Ben Healy followed up his strong sixth place in last week’s European time trial championships by taking sixth in the prologue of the Deutschland Tour in Germany on Wednesday. He finished just five seconds behind the winner Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) in the flat 2.6km test.

The race continues on Thursday with a hilly 171.7 kilometre stage from Weimar to Meiningen.

In France Archie Ryan is best placed of the Irish riders heading into the mountainous finale of the Tour de l’Avenir, regarded as the under-23 version of the Tour de France. He moved up 20 places to 21st overall, 2 minutes 52 seconds behind the overall leader Michel Hessman (Germany).

Darren Rafferty is next-best Irish rider in 37th.

Ryan’s improvement in the overall classification came despite finishing in a group 31 seconds behind the first riders on Wednesday. The race has a rest day on Thursday but the final three stages are much more suited to Ryan’s climbing talents and he will hope to impress.