By Sean Moriarty

Killarney Cycling Club member Frank Doherty has a World Cup Trophy to his name after finishing third in an international Cyclocross competition on Saturday.

WORLD CUP: Frank Doherty finished third in the Mens' Senior Race in the UCI Cyclocross World Cup in Dublin on Saturday.

Cycling Ireland hosted the ninth round of the UCI Cyclocross World Cup at the Sport Ireland Campus in Abbotstown, Dublin over the weekend.

While some of the sport’s biggest names took part in the main event on Sunday, club and national riders were allowed enter support races over the same course on Saturday.

Doherty has ambitions to contest Rás Mumhan next Easter and is in the middle of an extensive winter training campaign to make the cut for the biggest road race in Kerry.

Cyclocross, a cross-country style race, is popular in traditional cycling countries like Belgium and The Netherlands. It was devised to give road racers an opportunity to compete through the winter and has grown to be one of the world’s most popular cycling disciplines.

Doherty entered the event as part of his winter training regime.

Sunday’s main event was won by three-time world champion Belgian Wout van Aert, a nine-time Tour de France stage winner.

On Saturday, Doherty competed on the same course that the world stars tackled the following day.

He describes the sport as being a hybrid of cross-country running, mountain biking and road racing.

“The atmosphere was crazy up there,” Doherty told the Killarney Advertiser.

“But I have a trophy that says the World Cup on it.”

He was surprised to finish third in the Senior Mens’ race. He was grouped with other riders including junior and masters and had lapped several other racers over the course of his seven laps.

“I thought I might have been fifth, I was over loading the van when I heard: ‘Can Frank Doherty make his way to the podium’ over the Tannoy.”

Mark McGlynn was the only other Killarney Cycling Club member competing in the event but his bike suffered a mechanical failure and he was not classified as a finisher.