By Shane Stokes
Fiona Mangan will hope to continue her evolution in the women’s peloton in 2024, confirming that she has signed a paid contract extension with the US team Cynisca Cycling and will be able to focus more on the sport.
The 27 year old moved to the squad in July of this year, leaving the smaller Spanish Soltec team, and went on to record some strong performances.
That justified Cynisca’s faith in the Limerick woman and now her time with the squad has been extended.
“I actually just signed my contract there,” she told stickybottle in recent days. “So I’m with them for next year. I’m really, really happy with that.
“If the women’s peloton had pro continental teams the way they do in the men’s peloton, I think that’s what Cynisca would be. They have good resources. For me it is a huge step up [from previous team Soltec].
Advertisement
Mangan was with the IBCT squad last year, the Irish-registered, Belgium-based outfit. That stopped at the end of 2022 and she secured a late place with Spanish squad Soltec. It had a heavy racing programme at the start of the year, giving her the opportunities she needed, and she rode the women’s Vuelta a España with it in May.
However following that WorldTour event plus the similarly-ranked Itzulia Women, the race programme became more patchy. She contacted Cynisca and, six or seven weeks later, she signed for the squad in mid-July.
That turned out well and she agreed to a deal which moves things to a new level.
Related News
“They are giving me a salary. It’s the first time for me, so I'm delighted,” she said. “I’ll just be able to keep a balance, the team has given me the opportunity to actually take a step back from my work. I've been working four days a week up until this point, and now I get a chance to focus a bit more on training and recovering and things like that. That’s going to be a different offseason for me.”
Mangan’s signing is another indication of the evolution of Irish women’s cycling. Megan Armitage is going to the EF Education squad next year, while Lara Gillespie (UAE Team ADQ), Mia Griffin and Alice Sharpe (both Israel Premier Tech Roland) have all been progressing well. Their squads for 2024 have not yet been disclosed but all have a strong ability and should continue to build results.
Mangan is determined to keep evolving and with no pressure to work to support herself, she should go on to bigger things.
She takes encouragement from two races in particular this summer. On August 22 she was tenth in the 1.2-ranked Egmont Cycling Race Women in Belgium. Then on September 9th she was a fine seventh in the opening stage of the 2.1 Tour Cycliste Féminin International de l'Ardèche.
“The top 10 results this year for me were my highlights,” she said. “The stage in Ardèche where I got seventh, basically I love these sprints where you're not sprinting just to a line, you are sprinting to a corner and then to a line. Where it's about getting to that corner first.
“What happened is it all strung out, so I was able to go up nearly on the outside and kind of shove my way in up the line. And then kind of just get the corner on the outside so they you have a bit of momentum getting into the corner.
“We had actually cycled that finish, so I kind of had a good idea. And then I just knew actually who to follow. Once you know more and more girls in the peloton, you know who's going to move up at what point and you can decide what wheel is the right wheel to follow.
“I knew Danique Braam. She always comes like fourth and fifth in sprints so I was trying to actually try to stay with her, but then pass her out in time, because I knew she'd end up around fourth. But though obviously, I ended up seventh. Anyway, that’s how it played out.”
She confirms the result was a big confidence boost. It would also have helped seal the team’s decision to offer her a paid deal for 2024.
“These few weeks with the team was like a stagiaire-type contract,” she said. “Well, it was a full contract, but they didn't know if they were taking me on next year. So it was a really nice way of getting confidence within the team too.”
