Mel Spath winning the National Road Race Championships in June. She is named on the Irish team for next month's An Post Rás na mBan. Mary Costelloe, seen here taking bronze in the title race, is also on the team. (Photo: www.blackumbrellaphotography.com)
Cycling Ireland has unveiled perhaps the strongest ever national women’s team for next month’s An Post Rás na mBan.
The line-up includes a World Championships medallist, two US-based professionals, a sprinter in good form and a rider who has been one of the best women on the home scene in recent years.
The two US-based pros are National Road Race Champion Mel Spath and former national champion Olivia Dillon.
Spath converted from mountain biking to the road just a couple of seasons ago and in June in Carlingford, Co Louth, she retained the national road crown she had lifted 12 months earlier in Clonmel, Co Tipperary.
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Since winning the title last year she has secured a place on the US-based Team TIBCO pro squad and has spent the season to date riding in the US and further afield earning her pro spurs.
She is currently home in Ireland and last weekend underlined her level of progression since turning pro by winning the opening stage of the Ballinrobe Two Day, before holding her own to finish second overall and taking the points and mountains classifications.
Meanwhile, Olivia Dillon has been riding in the US for a number of years and now races in the colours of Now & Novartis for MS. As a former national title holder and winner of Rás na mBan in 2010 and 2011, she is the most experienced road rider of the Irish in the race.
She has been in good form of late and a couple of weeks ago finished 3rd in the San Rafael Twilight Bike Race featuring some of the top US-based pro women.
Apart from Dillon and Spath in the Irish team for the five-day, six stage, race in Co Clare next month are Caroline Ryan, Anne Dalton and Mary Costelloe.
Ryan has the best palmares of any Irish female rider in the modern era, though is a track specialist rather than a pure road racer. She is the reigning National Time Trial Champion and multi national track champion, is the current World No 1 in the individual pursuit and won a bronze medal in the points race at the World Track Championships last season.
The Kildare based member of the Garda did not medal at the National Road Race Championships in June, but she rode a very aggressive race in trying to split the field and looked one of the very strongest. Ultimately, the title being decided in a bunch sprint did not suit her.
Ryan, a former international rower, is capable of winning any of the stages in Co Clare next month and the overall, and with a team time trial stage to be contested she will be vital to the Irish team’s efforts.
It is a pity for Ryan that there is no individual time trial, though she has the legs to make the best of whatever terrain is thrown at her.
Mary Costelloe is perhaps the least known of the Irish team, but she has a very impressive record for one still so young and for stickybottle’s money she could be the surprise package of next month’s race.
She has 4th and 5th places to her name at the scratch race and points race in the European Junior Track Championships from a few seasons back and showed she has been in very good form of late by taking bronze in the National Road Race Championships in June; her second time to podium in that race having also taken bronze in 2009.
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Costelloe, based in Pennsylvania, the weekend before last took 10th place in the Prudential Ride London Criterium; one of her very best results ever on the road.
That ride underlines her ability to mix it with very strong riders and suggests a lack of fear in robust finales and also a very handy finishing kick; all of which could bring her stage wins if she gets a bit of luck in Co Clare.
Completing the Irish line-up is Anne Dalton, a member of the new DID Electrical women’s racing team. Dalton is now one of the very strongest riders on the home scene. She won the National League this year in a season when the fields were bigger and stronger than ever before.
And while the other riders on the national team for An Post Rás na mBan have more international experience than Dalton, the Carlow woman will go toe-to-toe with all comers on her day and will be expected to be one of the main riders in this year’s race.
Gillian McDarby will manage the team, with Sean McNicholl traveling as mechanic and Paula Dowling filling the soigneur role.
With the riders on the Irish team now established competitors who have long left behind the tag of developing riders, there will be a degree of pressure on the team to win the race this year; best of luck to all with those plans.
We’ll bring you more as the race approaches.
Anne Dalton of the DID Electrical Racing Team has had a great 2013, winning the National League and now being named on the Irish team for An Post Rás na mBan.
Based in the US and having shown very good form there recently, Olivia Dillon has won Rás na mBan twice and is one of the top favourites to take victory again next month.
Caroline Ryan in action at the World Track Championships in Minsk in February. She has the best record of any Irish female rider and while her biggest results have come on the track, her aggressive ride at the National Road Race Championships suggests that a very hard race in Co Clare may suit her better than most.
