Marine Lenehan (Dan Morrissey Pissie) may have made her name in Gran Fondos, winning aged-related world and European titles, but the Irish woman is also an accomplished road racer, which has clearly not gone unnoticed.
Lenehan has secured a stagiaire deal with World Tour team Lidl Trek, telling stickybottle she has already done a training camp with them, where they put her through her paces and carried out a full range of tests.
She explained she also went on the books of the same cycling agency, based in Italy, as first-year U23 Killian O’Brien, who has signed with Mexican Continental team Petrolike.
“I’ve been keeping it quiet because I didn’t want to say anything until I knew it was certain,” Lenehan told stickybottle of what will be a trial with the team from the start of August, commencing with Tour de Pologne.
“I did a training camp with them in January, where they tested all my numbers. And obviously they now want to see how I am in a rase, in the bunch. They’re happy with my numbers, but numbers don’t necessarily win bike races.
“I’m starting the Tour of Poland with them in August and then there’s some races in Belgium. We’ll see what the future brings. I’m hoping to be able to do Rás na mBan as well. It’s going to be a busy summer.”
Lenehan said she was thrilled to secure and trial, adding “it’s hard to get seen by these teams”.
“For me, the opportunity to even get tested there and to see what I’m made of, it was great. And even if nothing came out of it, it was still great; to spend seven days with the team in Denia (Spain) for the winter training camp. It was a hard seven days but it was amazing.
“I was called maybe three or four weeks before the camp – ‘do you want to come to the camp with us in Spain’. It was a bit of a rush to get ready but you definitely don’t say no to that kind of opportunity.”
She also signed with the A&J agency recently which she hopes will help progress her cycling career.
