Emily Birchall leads the way in yellow; pretty much summing up her stunning weekend in Scotland
Cork teenager Emily Birchall has enjoyed the weekend of her life, taking the overall win in the girls’ race at the Youth Tour of Scotland and winning three of the four stages on offer.
Birchall was simply too good for the best of British over the past three days and was aided and abetted today by very strong team mates who rode with a tactical nous well beyond their years.
The Killavullen youngster started her weekend in the manner she clearly intended to continue, taking the opening circuit race stage on Saturday. She had nine seconds to spare over Eleanor Dickinson (Royal London) in second. In another fantastic result for the Irish girls, Ciara Doogan rounded out the podium in third place, 1:28 down on her victorious team mate. Laura Cooke also riding for Ireland’s Neenan Travel Talent Team 2020 was 10th on the stage and Naoise Sheridan was 21st.
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The following morning, Sunday, Birchall wore the leader’s yellow jersey into the second stage, a criterium. She infiltrated a four-rider move that put more than one minute into the rest of the field. The Irish girl would finish fourth, with the stage win going to Londoner Dickinson who was second on the opening stage.
Sheridan was 16th, Laura Cooke 18th and Ciara Doogan 25th.
However, if it appeared on the basis of her crit ride that Dickinson would threaten Birchall for outright victory, it was in the 1.51km time trial on Sunday afternoon that the Irish girls really imposed themselves on the race.
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Birchall took the stage by 9 seconds from team mate Doogan, with danger rider Dickinson back in third also at 9 seconds. Laura Cooke was 16th and Naoise Sheridan 21st.
That performance gave Birchall a 14 second lead on Dickinson going into this morning’s concluding circuit race stage. The next closest to the lead was Martha Gill (Fred Whitton RT) in third, some 2:46 off the Irish yellow jersey.
In the end, not only did Birchall defend her lead but she extended it by taking a solo win after a strong individual ride and a really clever and disciplined team performance. Birchall and Doogan managed to get into the six-rider breakaway with Dickinson.
They then effectively worked her over, with Birchall going clear on her own to take the stage and extend her lead, and Doogan sitting on Dickinson to frustrate her chase of the flying yellow jersey. The stage was run off in tough conditions, with hailstones pelting the riders.
Those final stage performances today and also a strong ride by Cooke and Sheridan this afternoon in the chase group saw Ireland’s Neenan Travel Talent Team 2020 take second in the team classification while Brichall took the overall, three stages and both the mountains and points classifications. Doogan was third in the points.
We’ll bring you the official results when we have it to hand.
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