Fintan Ryan takes National Junior Road Race Championships after photo finish sprint

The National Junior Road Race Championship has been won in Omagh this afternoon by Fintan Ryan.

The Nicolas Roche Performance Team man got the verdict after a tight finish from a group containing himself Dylan O'Brien (O'Leary Stone Kanturk), Stephen Shanahan (Limerick CC), Danny Bruton (NRPT), David Fitzsimo, David Montgomery and a few others.

Shanahan won the silver medal and O'Brien took bronze.

There was a lot of attacking on the first three of seven laps. After three laps Thomas Fallon (Vacansoleil) and Ryan escaped and rode together for a lap, pulling out 1:07 on the bunch. They were then joined by nine others and they all rode well together, with attacking starting on the last lap.

Chris Jeuken from Black Rose Racing got a gap alone on the last lap of around 10 seconds but it regrouped with 2km to go. Shanahan then attacked alone but with 1.5km remaining he was caught and the sprint started close to the line, with just 200 metres remaining, going to a photo finish.

The top three are first year juniors. The bunch was around three minutes down, with Darragh Long winning the bunch sprint to help NRPT to the team prize.

We'll have the full result and race report a bit later.