Lucy O'Donnell secures place on international team for 2020 season

Lucy O’Donnell has joined the British-based Velo
Performance team which riders in the UK and Europe.

The squad is a mix of junior riders, including O’Donnell,
and elites all racing together on the elite scene.

O’Donnell has stepped up in the past year and along with
Lara Gillespie and Maeve Gallagher was on the Irish team for the World Road
Championships in Yorkshire.

She has developed very well in the colours of O’Leary
Stone Kanturk in recent seasons and has been riding the cyclocross scene at home
with the Verge Pi Cycles outfit of late.

Last season she was selected onto the Irish team to ride
the World Cyclocross Championships and in recent weeks has taken a number of
elite cyclocross wins at home.

She has also been racing in Britain and showed real quality in winner the junior race in the fifth round of the HSBC National Trophy Cyclocross in Pembrey last month.

In her new team she will get the opportunity to ride against pro opposition in both Britain and Europe.

The team is run by a company with a cycling holiday business in Portugal, where it also takes the squad to race.

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This year the Portuguese Cup and the British National
Criterium Series were among the events ridden by the team in what was its first
season.

Now going into its second campaign in 2020, it is
expected to develop the range of races it rides.

O’Donnell already has some experience of riding with the
team as she rode Rás na mBan in its colours in September.

There she held the best Irish rider jersey for a period
before finishing 5^th in that competition in the final standings.

The team includes Great Britain junior internationals Abi
Smith and Abbie Manley.

Daniela Campos, a 17-year-old from Portugal, has also
signed up. She’s the junior national champion and rode the Worlds for Portugal
this year.

Her compatriot Soraia Silva, an international rider and
former elite TT champion, is also among O’Donnell’s new team mates.

Emma Edwards (29), who has ridden the US pro scene in
recent years, is also in the 2020 roster.