One of the breakthrough riders for Ireland over the last couple of seasons, Lucy Bénézet Minns very nearly made the transition from national junior road race champion to elite champion on the roads of Co Meath on Saturday. But the 19-year-old Lotto Ladies rider ran out legs just over 1km from the finish line in Yellow Furze.
She went into the 117km title race intent on ploughing 100 per cent into a glory or bust effort. And though the outcome was 'bust', she told stickybottle she had no regrets. In the end, the power and time trial abilities that brought her to 4th in the junior Worlds TT weren't enough to hold off a nine-rider chasing group.
And once she was caught she was instantly spat out the back. She won the road race and TT in both her junior years - the double-double - but will have to wait for the U23 or elite champion's stripes. Still, her surge off the front with about 17km to go was the best attack of the race by far. In a race she felt was "negative" for 100km, her attack reminded everyone what she has under the bonnet.
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"I'm pretty happy, I wanted to race It like that," a philosophical Bénézet Minns told stickybottle after coming to a stop on the finishing straight. "For me, I don't really want to wait for a sprint. I think everyone knows I'm not going to sit around and wait to finish in a big group."
In the end, after she was caught she finished 10tth, last of the front group. She was 12 seconds down on Mia Griffin (Roland), who won in a sprint from Caoimhe O’Brien (Cynicsa) and Marine Lenehan (Dan Morrissey Pissei Cycling Team).
It was also clear Bénézet Minns would have liked more open racing over the 117km; four laps of four laps of the 25.3km - with two climbs - followed by one passage of the 9.4km smaller lap to finish.
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"There was some attacking but there was a lot of jumping straight on (to the wheel)," said Bénézet Minns. "The racing was pretty negative in the beginning and we were kind of just rolling around for, like, 100k and we weren't doing very much.
"I could see there were a couple of people who were swinging on the climbs pretty hard. So I thought a little injection of pace would get rid of some people. I tried a couple of moves that didn't really work."
On the final lap, after the second of the two climbs, she took her chance on a wide open main road stretch. And once she got clear she opened the biggest gap the race had seen.
"I didn't look back too much," she said. "I thought maybe somebody would come with me. But I could see everyone was more interested in chasing, not trying to bridge across or join. So then I thought I could just solo TT it (to the finish).
"As soon as I had a little gap, I thought 'I'm riding this to win and if I get caught I'll have given everything I have'. I was tying up pretty bad in the last 2k, and they could see me at that stage. It's also hard to motivate yourself when you can see them behind all gurning to try and catch you."
Bénézet Minns had pulled out close to 20 seconds at one point before the gap halved, got even smaller, and then shot out again. It was a yo-yo gap; something she was aware of.
"I could see them for a while and then I slowed down and they also slowed down," she said. "For a while I thought if I just sped up again they might let me go again. But it didn't really work. And I was cramping pretty bad when they caught me
"But I knew before the race, if I went for a move like that, it was all or nothing to win it and if it didn't work so be it. And that's how it went. That's racing. Mia deserved to win, she was so strong on the climbs today and always in the front. She could have attacked herself."
