The very strong Irish national team selected for Rás na mBan face into the week ahead in the knowledge the biggest challenge on the road is likely to come from Team GB, which has Olympic medal winners in its ranks.
Josie Knight, who won three stages of the Irish stage
race two years ago, is recently returned from the Olympic Games where she was
part of the team pursuit line-up that won the silver medal.
Knight, a former Irish international who switched to
Great Britain, has developed significantly as a rider since her last visit to
the Irish race and once she is recovered properly from Tokyo she should prove a
handful in coming days.
Knight is joined in that Great Britain team by Anna
Shackley, who was selected for the British road race and TT line-up in Tokyo. Though
she is just 20 years old, she has already secured a place on the SD Worx World
Tour team and her climbing prowess make her one to watch on the hardest days of
the race, which starts this afternoon.
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However, the Irish national team is also a very strong one, with experienced campaigners who can take stage wins and also challenge for the overall, and hopefully take a long overdue Irish GC win in the race.
Indeed, so many Irish women have come up through the
ranks in recent years that Cycling Ireland has been able to name a very strong
five-woman team for Rás na mBan in the same week two other riders – Ellen McDermott
and Megan Armitage – have been picked for the Europeans, while Lara Gillespie
is out injured at present.
From the Irish team pursuit line-up that won UCI World
Cup earlier this year, Alice Sharpe, Kelly Murphy and Mia Griffin will be
riding for Ireland this week in Kilkenny.
And they are joined by Imogen Cotter, who has been based
in Belgium in recent years, as well as Fiona Mangan; a breakthrough rider this
season who is new to the Irish set-up.
Of the five, Sharpe is the most experienced and she
enjoyed a strong spring campaign in Belgium this year before turning her
attention to the track. She has been back in road race action for Team
Rupelcleaning in Europe in recent weeks and she can make a big impact this week
if she is in form.
Mia Griffin and Kelly Murphy race alongside Sharpe on the track and within their Team Rupelcleaning trade team and both are big engines.
Griffin took a bronze medal in the U23 individual pursuit
at the Europeans last year and this year, for the first time, she has thrown
herself into a block of racing in Europe. She got into the shake-up in the
sprints at Kreiz Breizh Elites Dames and a repeat of those legs could bring her
stage success in Kilkenny this week.
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Murphy goes into the race clearly in good form, having recently
broken the outdoor national pursuit record twice on her way to gold the
National Track Championships.
Cotter comes into the race having amassed considerable
experience in recent years in Belgium. Rás na mBan was one of the first races
she rode just a few short seasons ago and she comes back to the event as a
completely different proposition.
Mangan is new to this level of racing but she has
impressed of late and has ridden herself into national selection in a matter of
months; her stage wins and overall victory at the Newcastle West Stage Race
suggesting she is real talent.
Aside from the Irish and British national teams, British
rider Natalie Grinczer is part of the CAMS-Tifosi
selection in the race. The 27-year-old won the queen of the hills in 2019 at
Rás na mBan, when she was also 4th overall. She is a former stage winner on the
race and can target both stages and the general classification this time
around.
Welshwoman Megan Barker is a team mate of Grinczer and
she won the madison and was 2nd in the team pursuit at the European Games in
2019 riding for Team GB, meaning she can mount a challenge in Ireland in coming
days.
There are a total of 21 teams in the race with riders
from all across the UK, Continental Europe, the US, Canada, New Zealand and
Argentina.
The LUX team from the USA includes the top four riders
from the US junior time trial and road race championships this year. There are
also eight UK registered teams including Team LDN – Brother UK, AWOL Worx,
Jadan Vive le Velo and ProNoctis Redchilli Bikles Heidi Kjeldsen.
Torelli Ireland has three Irish riders in the shape of Jennifer Bates, Roisin Lally and Kilkenny’s Amy Kinsella and they will look to join the attacks. Women’s Cycling Ireland have entered A and B teams with experienced Orwell Wheelers rider and new Leinster Champion Yvonne Doran joining Carthach McCarthy, Clare ní Reachtagáin, Emma Smith and Ella Tutty.
Kilkenny rider Elizabeth Kent makes her debut on the WCI B squad alongside Clodagh Allen, Keela MacHale, Agnieszka Samsel and Lauren Garvey. Junior national road race champion Ella Doherty makes her Rás na mBan debut in the Greenmount CA squad alongside Gaby Homer and Aoife Kelly.
UCD are traditionally among the strongest Irish teams and this year will be no exception as France-based Jenny Neenan joins Eva Brennan, Cleo Harvey, Catherine Mahoney and Orla Walsh.
Junior track record holder Caoimhe May returns to road racing action after the European Track Championships, with the UK Jadan Vive le Velo team. The Munster squad includes ace triathlete Becky Woods, Claire O’Sullivan, Linda Kelly and Ciara Kelly.
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