Ireland's Fiona Mangan has started her new season in Spain after signing for Spanish UCI team Soltec Team. The 26-year-old, who was 3rd in the elite road race at the National Road Championships last year - just weeks after breaking her collar bone - rode for IBCT in 2022.
Her new team looks set to base much of its season around Spanish races, though it will have an international calendar. It rode the women's Vuelta - Ceratizit Challenge by La Vuelta (2.WWT) - last year with a line-up that included Olympic champion Anna Kiesenhofer.
The team is currently waiting for an invite to the Vuelta this year, meaning the Irish woman could be in the running to start one of the women's Grand Tours this season.
Mangan, a late-comer to cycling, has already gotten her season underway, in Spain. She rode Women Cycling Pro Costa De Almería (1.1), placing 60th, and last weekend rode Vuelta CV Feminas (1.1), where she place 112th. Her next major assignment is the Vuelta Extramedura (2.2) stage race in Madrid, starting on March 10th.
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Her new team plans to target the Spanish Cup races in March and April, meaning Mangan should get plenty of racing miles under her belt.
Last July, just weeks after taking bronze at the Irish championships behind team mates Alice Sharpe and Mia Griffin, Mangan scored her first victory in Europe - winning a pro kermesse in Vrasene, Belgium. She got the better of Emily Meakin (Drops) in a two-up sprint after they had broken clear of the main breakaway.
That win, and her nationals podium, came after a period of illness early last year and then a crash at GP Mazda Schelkens (1.2) in Belgium on June 6th. She had her collar bone pinned the next day and just 19 days later was in action at the nationals in Kanturk.
Mangan - who converted to cycling after racing triathlon - announced herself by winning the Newcastle West Stage Race in her native Limerick in July-August, 2021. She claimed three of the four stages as well as the overall and the points classification. Mangan also won the Cycling Ireland National Road Series that year and made the Irish team for Rás na mBan.
