Oisin Ferrity takes it all on final day of action at Newry Three Day | Sticky Bottle

*Oisin Ferrity wins big into Rathfriland to finish off the Newry Three Day in real style today (Photo: Damian Faulkner)*

When Oisin Ferrity missed the winning breakaway on stage 2 at the Newry Three Day on Saturday, losing 39 seconds to the strong quartet up the road, it looked liked his chances of overall victory had taken a major blow. However, nobody told the Caldwell Cycles man, who ripped up the script on the final day of action today.

The big loser today was yellow jersey Killian O'Brien. The young Orwell Wheeler is shaping up as a rider who can excel at harder and longer racing and he really impressed again yesterday to win solo and take the race lead.

However, defending yellow is often harder than taking it, and Ferrity used that dynamic to his advantage today; last year's Irish junior road race champion getting up the road with team mate Curtis Neill. And as the finish drew nearer, Ferrity showed who was boss.

Because he was in the chasing group yesterday, he started the stage in 5th overall at 39 seconds; clearly not an insurmountable gap but a sizeable disadvantage to give away to a rider like O'Brien. When a nine-man breakaway went clear today and pulled out well over two minutes, all Ferrity had to do was finish in that breakaway and the overall victory was his.

But the 17-year-old had other plans. He attacked off the front in the final, initially getting clear in a small group - which included his team mate Neill and Gorey Three Day stage 4 winner Gavin Hendley (Lucan CRC). Once clear with them, Ferrity pulled the trigger again to go solo.

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He sailed over the line - after 122.86km of racing into Rathfriland - to win by 12 seconds on what is a testing finish. Neill - who is now also among the strongest group of juniors in the country - took 2nd place, just ahead of another emerging junior, Tadgh Killeen (Kilcullen Cycling Club Murphy Geospacial). Hendley was 4th, some 23 seconds back.

And then came the other riders who had been in the winning breakaway; Paul Doherty (Four Masters CC) 5th at 27 seconds; Mark McKinley (Newry Wheelers CC) 6th at 31 seconds; Kevin McKinney (Cycleology Racing Team) 7th at 35 seconds.

Shane Quinn (Longford CRC), finished in 8th place, at 1:20, and was best of the any of the riders who were not in the nine-man breakaway, which was whittled down to seven by the finish. Just three seconds behind Quinn came Ronan Killeen (Lucan CRC) and Jamie Philips (All human-VeloRevolution) in 9th and 10th.

The man who wore the yellow jersey today, Killian O'Brien was back in 16th place, finishing in a six-rider group some 2:58 down on Ferrity. The results today meant Ferrity ran out the overall winner by 52 seconds from Lucan's Killeen - who was in the breakaway yesterday and finished 2nd on the stage.

Then came Orwell's O'Brien, 3rd at 2:19, followed by another of the stage 2 breakaway men, Aaron Mansell (Halesowen), 4th at 2:27. Curtis Neill placed 5th overall after his efforts today - gaining time and also helping Ferrity to win - at 2:34, with Tadhg Killeen placing 6th, on the same time as Neill.

Ronan Killeen also won the points classification while Curtis Neill was best in the climbers' classification. Lucan CRC won the team prize and Chris Richardson of North Down CC won the A3 category.