Caoimhe O'Brien's massive lunge to the finish line at the National Road Championships saw her crash to the ground spectacularly, and at speed, as she finished in 4th place and just outside the medals.
The Torelli-Assure-Cayman Islands-Scimitar rider, who has just turned 20-years-old, made the 10-rider group that emerged on the finishing circuits of 15km in Kanturk on Saturday.
Coming towards the finish, IBCT had numbers in the move and sent Megan Armitage in a late attack. When she was caught, the team then took a clean sweep of the medals.
Alice Sharpe won gold, with Mia Griffin claiming the silver and Fiona Mangan collecting the bronze. O'Brien - the only rider in the front group to put it up to the IBCT women all the way to the line - was locked in a battle with Mangan for the final medal.
Advertisement
Related News
However, her lunge in wet conditions sent he crashing to the ground, with officials and then the medal winners all going to her in the minutes after the race ended to check if she was badly injured.
The good news is that she told stickybottle she is fine, despite being sent face-first to the wet ground
"I’m okay," she confirmed. "The road to the finish had a few bends in it and my line got cut with 150 metres to go so I had to build back up my power.
"I threw myself at the line. It was very wet and the finish line was a plastic one. So I think my bike just went from under me bit of a dramatic finish but I’m grand."
