Fiona Mangan got her new season, and tenure with new team Winspace Orange Seal, underway last weekend with two races in Mallorca, where she very much experienced the ups and downs of life on the road.
The Irish elite road race and TT champion, and now a ProConti rider, suffered a nasty crash during a line-out in a crosswind section in her first race but then spent 75km up the road in her second, on Sunday.
Mangan told stickybottle she fell ill in recent weeks, meaning her training was interrupted just before racing was due to start. As a result, her job was to work for the team in her first races this week.
"I was quite happy to do that, and Mallorca is a good way to open up the legs anyway before the season," she said, though added that before Sunday's Trofeo Palma Femina (1.1) she was hoping to get in the breakaway.
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She did that, with her 13-rider group gaining about 3:40 at one point. However, when the World Tour riders in the move all opting to stop working, it was only a matter of time before Mangan and her fellow escapees were caught.
The Irish woman was among the last three standing, but was eventually reeled in before the first climb of the final, with about 30km to go.
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"I was happy to get in the breakaway and I tried (to get away) four or five times," she said. "It was good to experience the breakaway and the team were happy. And it's what I want to try and do this year, race a bit differently."
At Trofeo Marratxi-Felanitx (1.1) on Saturday, her first race of the season, she was focused on positioning her team in the bunch when, with about 50km to go, the World Tour teams started putting up the pace.
The race lined out in the gutter in a crosswind and when a crash occurred, just ahead of Mangan, she had nowhere to go other than hit the deck herself.
"I came down on my face and got a chainring in the back, so I've a huge scar on my back as well," she said of the incident in which she suffered a wound below her left eye.
"Luckily I was fine and I was able to get back on the bike and get back to the peloton and help my sprinter in the last few kilometres," she added of Marie-Morgane le Deunff, who eventually finished 12th.
"I felt good. I probably still feel like I am still coming back from illness. I only had about 10 days of training before coming out here. But I was still confident to be able to stick with the bunch and play around a bit on the break.
"I want to get some good training before the classics in March, because that's my aim for the year."
