Eighth place for Nathan at world championships

Eighth place for Nathan at world championships

Talented Manx rider Nathan Draper secured a fine eighth place finish in a gripping junior men’s race at the Road World Championships in Richmond on Saturday.

The 18-year-old finished 13 seconds back from Austria’s Felix Gall who attacked alone from the lead group on the final lap and hung on by less than one metre to be crowned junior men’s road world champion.

Draper said he was ‘really happy with the result’.

‘I think today with it being the worlds, it was all about being patient. It was a bit of a nervous start, quite a few crashes,’ he said.

‘Once we got into the swing of things I started to keep at the front but not be on the front as such and then just looked for a break.’

Another talented young Manxie, Lizzie Holden, was 35^th in the women’s junior road race on Friday.

Island resident Ben Swift was 22^nd, the leading Brit, in yesterday’s Men’s Elite Road Race.