Seth Dunwoody made up for a couple of big near misses this year after he took the senior men’s national road race championships in Cong, Co Mayo on Sunday.The 20-year-old took both the elite and under-23 titles with a superb victory, outsprinting defending champion Rory Townsend (Unibet Rose Rockets) and Finn Crockett (VolkerWessels Cycling Team) after they went clear early on in a 20-man breakaway.Bahrain Victorious Development Team rider Dunwoody was hugely disappointed in April to lose the under-23 Paris-Roubaix by millimetres. He also finished similarly close to the win in the In Flanders Fields-Kattekoers race in May, the under-23 version of Gent-Wevelgem.“I wasn’t expecting Rory to go so early,” the Armagh rider said. “I had to dig really deep but giving up wasn’t an option to be honest. It’s been a tough year, I lost my granny over Christmas which was tough. I wanted to win a big race for her, second in Roubaix, Ghent was tough. And then with Shane O’Brien’s passing during the Giro, that was tough for all of Irish cycling.”On Saturday Lara Gillespie added the elite women’s road race title to the time trial gold she took on Thursday, doubling up when she outsprinted Emma Jeffers (Liv AlUla Jayco Women’s Continental Team) and defending champ Mia Griffin (Team Picnic PostNL).The UAE Team ADQ pro is continuing to evolve as a rider, finishing second in two stages of the recent Giro d’Italia Women.“Marine [Lenihan] attacked initially and we caught her, and then were all sort of looking at each other and ended up almost in a standing start before we got going for the line,” she said.Emer Heverin (Cams Majaco) triumphed in the junior women’s road race on Sunday morning, while Freddie Winkley (Harrowgate Nova Race Team) was best of the junior men.