"It was nerve-racking waiting for the photo finish. But when I heard I won it was unreal"

With a quality track pedigree and now a national junior road title, Fintan Ryan has developed into one of the best young riders in the country (Photo: www.blackumbrellaphotography.com) Homepage photo is by Amy Norah Farrell and shows Ryan winning in Dunboyne earlier this year.

He won’t turn 17 until next month but Fintan Ryan showed maturity well beyond his years when he won the National Junior Road Race title in Omagh on Sunday.

It was a fabulous sprint by the youngster from Ashford, Co Wicklow, that saw him claim the gold medal. But he had an anxious 15-minute wait before he was officially crowned champion, such was the closeness of the finish.

The Nicolas Roche Performance Team rider saw off the best efforts of Stephen Shanahan (Limerick CC) and Dylan O’Brien (O’Leary’s Stone Kanturk) and he told stickybottle he’s still coming to terms with the enormity of his achievement.

“I wasn’t sure who won, to be honest," he said of that endless wait while the photo finish was consulted.

“It was nerve-racking for a while, maybe 15 minutes I was waiting before I knew. You don’t really want to get too excited before it was announced."

“But when they told me I had it, it was the best feeling. I’m dead proud. My Facebook and phone are going mad. It’s amazing how many people have congratulated me. You really don’t realise how big it is until you step back from it. It’s still only sinking in now.”

The plan for the team was to have a man in every move and their seven-man squad performed their instructions to the letter.

“We were just hoping to get into every move, make sure we didn’t miss anything because that’d be the worst situation possible for us. We did that well. We were taking turns chasing down attacks. Everybody did their bit. It just worked out that me and Danny Bruton managed to get up the road,” Ryan explained.

“I got about 30 seconds on the bunch on my own at one stage and a lap after that (about 40 miles to go) I got away with Thomas Fallon and that stuck. Then Danny got in a chase move that caught us. The likes of Dylan O’Brien, Shanahan, about eight in total were there I think. I was glad of them coming across."

“We rode well together then. Everybody did their bit in the break. Having two men worked in our favour too because no one else had two and I’d say it worried the others."

“Getting up the road was the hardest part actually,” he continued.

“I was thinking ‘I’m not going to last with a suicide move like this’ but once the group caught us I was happy because I could get a bit of a rest. Then I started thinking that I actually could win this and when the gap got over three minutes I was fancying myself for the sprint.”

Coming towards the line, Fallon was the man Ryan was most concerned about but when he was blown out, he knew the title was in sight.

“I thought Fallon, if he was there, would be the man to follow in the sprint. Me and Danny said we should attack Fallon before the line but he got dropped before the end because he was probably wrecked from the training camps and World Championships."

"I knew me and Danny were probably two of the best sprinters there so I had no worries from then on."

“I think Ciaran Campbell jumped in the last kilometre then and David Montgomery went after him, he rode straight through us so I was very thankful for that. I made sure I wasn’t too far forward, I was on Shanahan’s wheel coming into the last few hundred metres."

“It was Danny or Dylan who took up the sprint, Shanahan went on the left and I reckon he might have made a mistake because my side was more sheltered. But it was only an inch or so separated us at the finish and I got it. It was so close.”

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Ryan, who rode with Sorrento CC until this season, has more pedigree on the track than on the road and has garnered a slew of medals from the track at Sundrive, Dublin. But when he was overlooked for selection for the national junior track team this year he admitted to being let down.

“I was a bit disappointed but I try not to let it get to me,” said.

“I had goals and ambitions for the track because originally I was always at Sundrive, three races a year. And I’d have always planned to do them and win them but unfortunately before I even had a chance to try and win, the team was picked for the track."

"I would have fancied myself to do well in the World Track Championships (in Glasgow), I wouldn’t expect a medal but to get the experience for a future medal would have been good. Maybe next year."

“Last year I won all the U16 titles available here in Ireland, the Duane Delaney last year and the A category this year. I’ve had my best results on the track. I enjoy both road and track but I get better results on the track.”

He says he has been delighted with his move to the Nicolas Roche Performance Team this year.

“It’s great, it’s brilliant. I put Sunday’s win down to the team. They give me the confidence to go in the moves and everyone who has helped out has been great. You couldn’t get a better set up. Hopefully I will stay there. It would be great.”

Omagh, Co Tyrone, Sunday 18^th August 2013

All-Ireland Junior Road Race Championships