By Shane Stokes
This week’s news that Mia Griffin has signed a contract with the WorldTour Roland Cogeas Edelweiss Squad marks a huge boost to both her career and also to Irish women’s cycling.
The Swiss team rode the Tour de France Femmes this summer and securing a deal with the squad is a very significant achievement, and one which reflects the potential of the 23 year old rider.
Speaking in advance of that news being publicly announced, Griffin told stickybottle and others that getting the most out of her parallel road and track ambitions next season is a big goal of hers.
“I think a big winter is going to have to be put in,” she said. “I want to try and balance the road and track a lot next year. So I think it’s going to be a really chaotic season.
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“I’m going to try and get a solid a block of training as possible over the winter, as many as many hours as possible. And just hope that that will carry me through the season.”
Griffin has been racing with her current IBCT team for three seasons. It was a club team in 2020 but has been a UCI-registered Continental squad for the past two years. She had a number of very promising road results this season, including the silver medal in the national road race championships, plus fine placings of 10th and 11th on stages of the 2.1-ranked Baloise Ladies Tour in Belgium. She was also 11th in the 1.1-ranked Spar Flanders Diamond Tour.
Those point to a big potential and as she grows older and gains experience, there is every chance the former camogie player from Glenmore in Kilkenny will go on to a strong career.
But Griffin has also shone on the track, showing she has a versatility that many road riders lack.
Her velodrome performances include a new national team pursuit record set en route to fifth place in the UCI Track Nations Cup in Glasgow, as well as bronze with Alice Sharpe in the women’s Madison at the UCI Track Nations Cup in Milton, Canada.
In August she was part of the team pursuit squad which finished sixth in the European championships in Munich.
She’ll line out this weekend in the track world championships in Paris and wants to notch up a strong performance coming towards the end of what she terms a real rollercoaster of a season. Setbacks include a shoulder problem in the spring, another shoulder injury while competing in the European championship Madison in August, and a recent bout of illness which, she hopes, won’t hold her back in Paris.
“It’s been a complicated run in,” she said. “The shoulder is fine now. But as soon as I started to recover and started to do some hard Zwift sessions, I got sick. I thought it was just a cold, but it turned out to be Covid. So it’s been anything but straightforward to get myself to here.”
SEEING SAM BENNETT AS AN INSPIRATION
Griffin caught the virus three weeks ago and has had to keep reassuring herself that things will turn around in time for the worlds. It wasn’t easy to do so when her energy levels were depleted but, little by little, things have improved.
“My legs are coming just as I’m getting here to the competition,” she said. “All the way through the training camp, it was just like ‘keep patient and your legs will come good in two weeks’ time. They may be really bad now, but just keep pushing.’”
Griffin was able to take encouragement from Sam Bennett’s own situation. The sprinter caught the virus during the Vuelta a España and had to withdraw from the event as a result. He initially struggled in training but, working carefully with his Bora-hansgrohe team, things gradually turned around.
He returned to racing last week and on Sunday was on the attack for a large part of Paris-Tours, then finished third in the sprint to the line.
“I saw that result from Sam and I was like, ‘that’s pretty cool,’” Griffin says. “I saw that he got Covid in the Vuelta, and that shows that you can get back pretty quick. I saw as well…I was living with my boyfriend and we both got it at the same time. And he rode gravel worlds yesterday [Sunday] and was flying.
“There are always some good things that that come about that give you confidence as well, so that’s cool.”
“WE’RE SIMILAR SIZES, HEIGHTS, EVERYTHING. IT MAKES QUITE A GOOD COMBINATION”
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Griffin usually competes as part of the team pursuit squad but for the world championships her slot was filled by Lara Gillespie. That’s due in part to Gillespie’s strong form and, most likely, also due to that recent bout of Covid-19. She will line out in one event only, combining with Alice Sharpe in the Madison on Saturday.
Griffin will look back to their bronze medal showing in the UCI Track Nations Cup in Milton, Canada for encouragement. She also believes racing on road and track with Sharpe will stand to their advantage, with the two of them being very well suited to competing as a pairing.
“I’ve ridden a lot with Alice and I know her inside out and upside down. So that’s good,” she said.
“It’s going to be really good to ride with Alice again, because we’ve not ridden a Madison together since [the European championships]. I’m really excited to ride with her again, because we’re similar sizes, heights, everything. It makes quite a good combination. So I’m excited for that.”
Sharpe will be additionally motivated to perform well in the Madison as the team pursuit squad narrowly missed out on progression to the first round in Wednesday’s qualifiers. The quartet of Sharpe, Gillespie, Kelly Murphy and Emily Kay recorded the second-fastest time ever by Irish riders in the event, less than 0.2 seconds off their national record, but ended up ninth. This was one place outside the top eight place needed to go through to the next round.
She and the others on the team pursuit squad will be frustrated by this and will do what they can to come away from the championships with some big results. Sharpe—and Griffin—will hope that this happens in the Madison.
‘MASSIVE LOVE FOR THE ROAD’
This week’s announcement of Griffin’s new team came a day after she spoke about plans for 2023. She didn’t give anything away in that interview, talking in general terms about the IBCT team and saying that it wasn’t clear what level it would be racing at in 2023.
While she didn’t reveal that she had been in discussions with the Roland Cogeas Edelweiss Squad, she did say that there is an element of uncertainty for riders until things are finalised.
“With contracts and everything, you don’t know what you’re going to sign and what you’re not going to sign,” she explained then. “It’s a bit of a waiting game with regards to that. You have to kind of weigh up your options and kind of hope that someone sees something good in you and that it can happen.”
That has indeed come to pass, with a WorldTour contract awaiting her for 2023.
She’ll seize the opportunity with both hands, not least because of how she feels about this area of the sport.
“I think this year I’ve actually found a massive love for the road,” she said. “And as much as I love track, I think the road is a really, really exciting prospect too. So I really want to gain some momentum.
“Learning how to ride in those groups in Belgium is just so good to bring you on. Even [in terms of] your bike handling for the track races and just to learn how to suffer, because there’s just nothing really like it, in that aspect.
“I want to try and balance both of them as well as I can. But definitely, the road does bring the legs for the track for the events like the Madison. There’s no question about it.”
What’s important to her is to keep progressing. She turns 24 on December 30th and while time is on her side, she also wants to show just how good she can be.
The encouraging thing is that amid the disruptions and setbacks, she sees clear indications of what is possible.
“Between everything I think it’s been an absolute roller coaster of a season, between illness and injury, with my two [injured] shoulders, and getting sick as well,” she said. “I think when I can stay on my bike, and when I don’t get sick, things go good. I just need to stay upright and stay healthy and then things seem to go well. But when sickness and injury come in, then that’s a challenge.
“This so far has been my most challenging season as regards coming back from two separate injuries. But it also showed me that it’s very possible to come back stronger. Even if you’ve fallen off and have missed races, it doesn’t mean that you’re not going to be in good form.”
She’ll hope that will prove to be the case on Saturday in the Madison. Catching Covid prior to the championships was far from the ideal preparation but if she can bounce back in time and ride well, that will fire her up for 2023.
That said, considering her new contract, motivation is unlikely to be in short supply anyway.
