Marko Kurits of Estonia won stage two of the Junior Tour yesterday from Belfast to Downpatrick but Mark Scanlon of the Ireland team still leads overall from British champion Janto Barker.

There was a bunch sprint at the end of the 65 miles and Willie Curtin of North Cork led the charge for the line but with victory in sight his gears slipped and he was passed by Kurits. Curtin managed to hold onto second place from Scanlon with Joachim Schoonacker (Belgium) next followed by Mark Flavin (Cork) and Barker.

Schoonacker and Kurits led over the king of the mountains checkpoints near Ballinahinch and Castlewellan and then Belgian Aijka Depres forged ahead and built up a lead of a minute and 45 seconds. As the leader wilted approaching the finish Marc Currie of Scotland was first up to him but they were both overhauled before the final sprint.

Scanlon and Barker are still on the same time but Scanlon retained the yellow jersey heading for Clones today.

Stage two: (65 miles from Belfast to Downpatrick) - 1, M Kurits (Estonia) 2:37:44; 2, W Curtin (North Cork) at 1 sec; 3, M Scanlon (Ireland); 4, J Schoonacker (Belgium); 5, M Flavin (Cork); 6, Y Barker (Britain) all same time. Overall - 1, Scanlon 5:00:15; 2, Barker same time; 3, B Wiggins (Team Brite) at 1:45; 4, F van Katwijk (Holland); 5, D McGowan Britain); 6, M St Laurent (Canada) all same time. Points - 1, Scanlon 18; 2, Barker 14; 3, Kurits 10. King of Mountains - 1, Kurits, A Ross (Scotland) and Schoonacker all on 6 pts.

Irish champion Robin Seymour was 32nd in the European mountain bike championship at Aywaille near Spa in Belgium. The title went to Christophe Dupouey of France and at the end of five laps of 10 kilometres Seymour was 15 minutes in arrears. Alastair Martin was 57th with Philip McNamara 63rd.

A broken chain and a puncture ended the hopes of Richie McCauley and Raymond Clarke. Craig Brady was 29th in the under-event, Matt Slattery was best of the Irish juniors, 48th, while Tarja Owens was 43rd in the women's championship.