When Megan Armitage sprinted down a packed finishing straight in the usually sleepy Spanish town of Piornal on Sunday she was keeping a promise she made to herself. Before the start that day she had told herself not only to take her chance if it came, but to absolutely grab it and make sure nobody could take it from her.
The 26-year-old Irish woman claimed the stage victory at Vuelta Extremadura Féminas (2.2) and also wrapped up the overall and the points classification. In barely two years, she has gone from lining out in the National Road Race Championships as a novice - with no idea how to race - to becoming the first Irish woman ever to win a UCI-ranked stage race.
Furthermore, just months on from seeing a two-year pro contract go up in smoke – more on that in a moment - she has moved herself squarely into contention for a place in Arkéa Pro Cycling’s Tour de France team. If she gets a start in that race – which now appears likely – she would be the first Irish woman ever to ride the event.
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Sunday was a big day for the Irish rider – bigger than she realised herself, she told stickybottle, as she was sailing across the line victorious having ridden the rest of the field, in its entirety, off her wheel.
“I wanted to win the stage and I wasn’t going to turn down that opportunity. I’m really happy that I won but obviously it’s kinda sad I had to beat my team mate to achieve that," Armitage said of team mate Carla Emond placing 2nd on the day and 2nd overall. "But I went into that stage saying ‘I’m backing myself 100 per cent’ and ‘if the opportunity arises I’m taking it’.
“When I crossed the line it was a bit bitter sweet because you’re beating your team mate, it’s not the ideal situation to win from. But looking back now, I think I’m just proud I went into that race that morning and I was, like, ‘I’m winning this race, I don’t care what I happens, I’m turning myself inside out to win’.
“I’m really happy that I did that; that I backed myself and didn’t let my head take over. In my head sometimes I’ve over-analysed and over-complicated things. But I went and had my objectives and achieved them.
“But, more so, I just want to keep progressing,” she said of her career, now really taking off just months after B&B Hotels–KTM collapsed and, with it, a two-year contract she had signed with the French squad. Finding herself teamless as the season approached, Arkéa Pro Cycling approached her to ride for them this year.
“In that race at the weekend, the level wasn’t really that high," Armitage said of Vuelta Extremadura Féminas. "So, I want to be able to do that at a higher level, where things like positioning really come into play. You can train all you want, but if you’re not in the right position, at World Tour level, your race is kinda already over.”
Armitage began last weekend’s Vuelta Extremadura Féminas on a very strong footing when her team won the TTT opening stage, putting all of the Arkéa Pro Cycling Team riders in a great position to succeed through the weekend.
On Saturday’s second stage, the Irish woman and her team mate, Canadian Clara Emond, broke free up the final climb with French rider Maëva Squiban (Stade Rochelais Charente-Maritime). However, though they persisted and built a gap of about 20 seconds almost immediately, some 50km remained on the stage.
Much of that was on roads featuring long straights, into a crosswind and Squiban soon sat up. While Armitage and Edmond kept going, they were caught by a 14-rider chasing group after about 10km. That group remained clear and had a gap of one minute on a 30-strong chase group with 10km to go. But the gap then tumbled and the groups merged with just 1.4km to the finish. Squiban won the sprint for victory, with Armitage 14th.
But the Irish woman said she wasn’t too disappointed her group had been caught that day as she knew the final climb to the finish the next day, Sunday's final stage, would decide everything. When the field reached that climb on Sunday, Emond and Armitage went on the attack with 5km to go. They pulled clear, with Armitage beating her team mate in a two-up sprint for stage victory.
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That win brought her a 10-second bonus, to add to a two-second bonus she picked up at an intermediate sprint earlier in the day. That ride on the final day meant she ran out the overall winner by six seconds from Emond. A third team mate, Dutch rider Maaike Coljé, finished 3rd on the final stage and 3rd overall, with Armitage praising her performance - "being able to drop the other girls and get 3rd for herself after doing so much work".
When the battle for stage and overall honours came down to her against her team mate, Emond, it was “a bit weird”. However, they had agreed within the team pre-stage they would fight it out at the finish on a ‘best woman wins’ basis if they were in contention at the end. That agreement, she said, was struck because it seemed clear to everyone in the team it had the three strongest riders in the race, who would likely come to the fore on the final climb, which is exactly what happened.
“It’s not often you get to win those races and getting the general classification as well was just the cherry on top,” she said.
Asked if she felt she was on a new level this year compared to last season, she replied: “You never look back, you always look forward and hopefully you’re progressing. But then the goalposts always seem to keep moving. And when I won that race on Sunday, I didn’t know no Irish woman had won a UCI stage race before, which was really special. I had no idea, it was pretty incredible to find that out. But I suppose once you achieve something, you want to keep chipping away to achieve more and more.”
She added while she was “just sitting on a road bike (for the first time) 2½ years ago” she credited “a lot of people I’ve met along the way” with helping her develop so quickly.
“I think my fatigue resistance is quite high and so I can do quite a high volume of training,” she said. “I’m usually doing 20 hours (per week) and I seem to be OK with that. So I have been able to up my training quite a lot.
"And I’ve been periodising my training and training to have adaptation weeks and recovery weeks. I’m also taking my recovery days a lot more seriously and that was something I was really, really bad at when I started. I would just never take a day of the bike.”
This year, she added, she had been able to identify races where she felt she could get a result – including the one she has just won. Because of that, she put a plan in place for “really big volume” training, with some “really intense weeks” before knocking it back a little just before a target race.
Next up is the Tour de Normandie before “a bit of a break” as her team mates take on races like Scheldeprijs and Paris-Roubaix.
“I’ll be back then doing Brabantse Pijl and Liège-Bastogne-Liège and (Grand Prix Féminin de) Chambéry, those types of races,” she said. “And then hopefully I’ll get to do the Tour de France this year, fingers crossed.”
But while very excited at the prospect of possibly riding the Tour, she said she knew she had to improve different aspects of her performance, as she has already been reminded this season, and is determined to keep working hard.
She said he was “kicking” herself on the opening day of the campaign at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad (1.WWT), explaining that on the Molenberg she was “too far back and my race was over”.
“I felt really good and I knew I needed to be at the front but there was just that one moment when I was in the wrong spot and it all just came to a standstill,” she said. Armitage added the experience made her determined not to make mistakes a few days later at Le Samyn des Dames (1.1), when she made the front group and was attacking in the final 5km.
“I signed a two-year contract with B&B and then that all fell apart, so I didn’t have a team,” she explained of her recent brush with being left out in the cold. “And then Arkéa offered me a contract and at that point I just wanted to race, I didn’t care what team I was on. So I was really grateful to get the opportunity to race with the team. It’s been really, really good so far. I have a lot of learning to do. I know there’s going to be ups and downs but I am really loving it so far.”
