Cycling Ireland has named the Irish team that will take on Rás na mBan next month, with experienced senior international riders featuring as well as younger athletes who are rapidly emerging, including impressive junior Lucy Benezet Minns.
Teenager Benezet Minns (Tofauti Active) launched herself on the international scene earlier this month in Scotland, where she finished 4th in the junior women's TT at the UCI World Road Championships. Having also won both the road race and TT at the National Road Championships in Co Tyrone in June, it will be very interesting to see how she fares in an international field at Rás na mBan next month.
Also named in the team are: Mia Griffin (Israel Premier Tech Roland), Erin Creighton (McConvey Cycles) and the O'Brien sisters, Caoimhe (Cyclingteam Belco-Van Eyck) and Aoife (Spellman Dublin Port).
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Griffin has recently come back to racing after suffering concussion earlier in the year and on Tuesday won gold at the National Criterium Championships. Creighton has this year stepped up from the Irish junior set-up to the elite national track squad while the O'Briens have been racing in Belgium of late.
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Rás na mBan runs from from September 6th to 10th, featuring six stages. While it is based mostly in Kilkenny, this year's edition includes a first-ever Waterford stage, starting and finishing in Tramore.
Neill Delahaye, Cycling Ireland's head coach, said he was delighted with the selection and believed the young riders in the team - who will benefit from Griffin's leadership presence - will also learn a lot from the week of racing.
"Rás na mBan has always provided high quality, well organised and exciting International standard racing on domestic roads," he said. "It is an ideal opportunity for us as a federation to provide a professional supported environment to riders at development stages of their career and we are delighted to have a senior rider of the calibre of Mia also featuring in the team.
"We believe the current crop of young Irish women have significant potential and stand to gain a lot of positive learning under the stewardship of Barry Monaghan and his experienced team. We have used a comparable team composition in the men's Rás in recent years to good effect and it is a team format that should work equally well for the women."
