Dave McCall of Maryland Wheelers, Belfast, won the Tour of Armagh yesterday at Lurgan and although Raymond Clarke of Premier, Clonmel, was only seventh it was sufficient for him to clinch the Callcard Classic League with one event to go. At the end of 80 miles McCall beat Ian Chivers with Joe Barr third, followed in by Denis Easton, Jason Crowe and Mark Kiernan but as none of Clarke's closest rivals in the league got into the top 10 to collect any points he cannot be overhauled.
Clarke has 61 points with David Peelo on 44 and Tommy Evans still has 39 and the winner of the final event on August 31st gets 15 points.
After only six miles a group of seven forged ahead - Brendan Graham was with McCall, Chivers, Barr, Easton, Crowe and Kiernan but Graham was unable to hold his place at the front on the second time at Keady Mountain and dropped back.
Near Armagh, with 12 miles to go, Clarke and Declan McMackin went in pursuit of the leaders. When they got to 40 seconds they looked set to join up but they then slipped back and at the finish Clarke was 59 seconds in arrears with McMackin at a further two seconds and Paddy Moriarty led in the main group at 1:19 with last year's winner Paul Griffin 10th.
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