Fiona Mangan, a latecomer to cycling, tomorrow takes to the start line of La Vuelta Femenina (2.WWT), becoming the first Irish cyclist to ride the women's Spanish Grand Tour. The event has been expanded this year, and is now seven stages, with many of the best riders in the world set to ride.
Mangan will be competing with her Spanish outfit, Soltec Team, and is set for seven days of action that will test her on all terrain, including the monster 13km climb of Lagos de Covadonga that will mark the end of the race next Sunday.
The 26-year-old from Co Limerick told stickybottle she was determined to soak it up and take the racing one day at a time. "Every day is a deposit in the bank, that's the way I look at it," she said. "And I'll be making big deposits for the next week and then we'll see where that takes me."
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Mangan's story - the sheer speed at which she has gotten to a race like La Vuelta - is remarkable. She played Gaelic football in a previous life, with Mungret St Paul’s GAA, before she moved into triathlon. That transition only came about when she went to Atlanta in the US for college – to study to be a biomedical engineer.
Mangan joined the triathlon club at university to keep fit and compete. When the pandemic struck in early 2020, the combination of a running injury and swimming pools being closed meant she began to focus solely on her cycling.
As she was back living at home in Limerick at the time, she began training with Greenmount Cycling Academy and placed 10th in the National Road Championships in October, 2020. Since then she has won a series of races at home, represented Ireland and secured a place with her current Spanish team, which brings her to La Vuelta.
It is a race where she will compete against legends like Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar Team), Demi Vollering (Team SD Worx), Marianne Vos (Team Jumbo-Visma) and Lizzie Deignan (Trek-Segafredo), to name but a few.
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"It's a big deal because it's my first Grand Tour and my first stage race with seven stages and those long hilly stages," she said. "When it's your first time riding something like this… I'm trying to soak it all in. My objective is to take it day by day. It's a race for me like no other. But whether it's a local crit, Rás na mBan or the Vuelta you go to the start line as prepared as you can be.
"I'm not looking to score a result on general classification but I'd love to target stages that suit me better than others. And then it's also about new experiences for me; things like getting the recovery right between stages, being on the road and going from hotel to hotel, getting the nutrition right.
"So they're all experiences I want to take in during the next week and you can't replicate any of that in training. But, of course, I'd love to try and get in a break, to be a bit brave in some of the flatter stages."
The race gets underway tomorrow with a 14.5km TTT in Torrevieja. That's followed by the 105.8km stage 2 from Orihuela to Pilar de la Horadada and the 157.8km stage 3 from Elche de la Sierra to La Roda; both flatter stages where the battle to get in a breakaway will be fierce.
Thursday's stage 4 is hillier, taking the riders some 133.1km from Cuenca to Guadalajara. Friday's stage 5 is an uphill finish after 129.2km from La Cabrera to Mirador de Peñas Llanas; a 4.8km climb with an average gradient of 7.2 per cent to finish. The penultimate stage next Saturday is flatter - though still with some climbs - and takes the riders some 106.1km from Castro Urdiales to Laredo.
The race concludes next Sunday with the 93.7km stage from Pola de Sieroto to Lagos de Covadonga. While that final day of action will be short, the finish is on the top of a 13.3km HC climb, averaging 6.8 per cent gradient.
"If I can, I'd love to try and make a fight of it and see what I can do," said Mangan of hoping to get a chance to get up the road at some point. "But I'll also need to be smart. I didn't think I'd be here even last year. This is a big race, it's something I'd watch on TV to see girls compete. And now I'm competing alongside them, so that's pretty cool. And if I can make it to the that final climb on the last day, I'll be really proud."
