Irish cyclocross and road race international Lucy
O'Donnell has taken a podium placing in the fourth round of the Portuguese Cup
in Penalva do Castelo.
The 18-year-old is racing with Velo Performance-JS Campinense and lined out on Sunday as part of
an international team line-up. It also included Emma Smith, riding for Navan RC
in Ireland, and Elia Tutty, who has competed at home in Ireland with Dungarvan
CC.
The 77km race was over a demanding course, with climbs and cobbled sections, as well as intense heat for the riders to deal with.
O’Donnell, Tutty and Smith spent the early part of the race working for the team in a bid to secure the sprints classification for team mate Mariana Libano.
And once that work was done, and the sprint
classification was secured, O’Donnell set about imposing herself on the front
of the elite race.
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With about 1½ laps remaining in the four-lap race O’Donnell
attacked hard from the remains of the peloton and went clear solo, building a
significant gap.
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While there were several attacks from the group behind
her, she stuck to her task out front solo and built an advantage that went over
one minute.
Once that gap had been established, the attacks in the peloton finally resulted in three riders breaking clear and bridging across to O’Donnell.
With the last 5km consisting of a tough climb and a
cobbled section, the finale was a challenging one that split the four-rider
breakaway.
Vera Vilaca (Extremosul-Hotel
Alisios-Cenmais) got clear of the others to win by seven
seconds, from Iuliia Legkova (Korpo Activo-Penacova). Ireland’s O’Donnell (Velo Performance-JS
Campinense) was 3rd in the same time as Legkova.
The other rider in
the winning breakaway, Raquel
Rocha (Korpo Activo-Penacova) was tailed off
on the run-in but survived for 4th place, some 21 seconds behind O’Donnell.
Elia Tutty was 21st,
in the same elite race as O’Donnell, while Emma Smith was 12th in the junior
category.
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