Having gotten stuck into a spring campaign packed with European racing for her new World Tour team, Israel Premier Tech Roland, Ireland's Mia Griffin has a date with destiny tomorrow. She will line out at Paris-Roubaix, becoming the first Irish woman ever to ride 'Hell of the North'.
On the eve of the iconic race, Griffin told stickybottle she was excited but trying to stay calm. Most of all, she said, she was anticipating "a war" across the pavé of northern France, adding her recon rides in recent days brought home some of the reality of what's ahead of her.
"I have a lot of respect for the race," she said. "It's a race I've always wanted to do since I started cycling, it's Paris-Roubaix; it's the biggest it's the most epic. It's not been in the women's calendar for that long but it has an amazing rich history and obviously a lot of legends have ridden it.
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"It will be, I'm sure, a great, great experience. And I go into it very excited for it. But I'm also trying to keep calm because, from what I hear about this race, it's likely that you're going to have to deal with punctures, crashes. So you have to go into it prepared for it to be a war."
Griffin said she would try and get in an early breakaway as would her teammates, in a bid to avoid the early "carnage" over the first three sectors of pavé.
"It's been quite rainy and when we had a look at some of the sections yesterday there was quite a lot of muck in some of the pavé, especially Mons-en-Pévèle," she said of the first of two five-star sectors, to be negotiated with 49km to go. "That's a really hard sector and even when we were reconning it, my back wheel was skipping on some of the corners.
"When there's a whole bunch of 130 girls going over those cobbles I think it's going to be absolutely mental. So, for me, it's key that before the first section I'm well positioned. Everything is just going to blow to bits - there'll be people everywhere. And I think by the first three sectors the race will have almost played out. If you're not well positioned, you're not going to come back.
"The cobbles are obviously not like the ones you race over in Belgian races. In some sections there's just cobbles missing and even your arms and your finger joints are sore going over them, your hands are blistered. I think it's definitely going to be a war."
While tomorrow is a big day in the career of Griffin - a former intercounty camogie player for Kilkenny who came to cycling late - she has already gained significant experience since the start of this season, her first as a World Tour rider
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After starting the campaign in Australia - with Santos Tour Down Under and Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race - she went on to ride Strade Bianche Donne (1.WWT) and, the following day, Trofeo Oro in Euro-Women's Bike Race (1.1). There followed four Belgian races: Classic Brugge-De Panne (1.WWT), Gent-Wevelgem (1.WWT), Dwars door Vlaanderen (1.Pro) and Tour of Flanders (1.WWT).
Finishing Trofeo Oro, Brugge De Panne and Dwars door Vlaanderen in the top third of the field, Griffin said those races really aided her progress. And while she was a non-finisher at Gent-Wevelgem and Tour of Flanders, she says getting more competitive in those races is the next challenge.
"It's been a big, big learning experience and it's been a big jump as well," she said of the last couple of months. "The races that were especially hard were Gent and Flanders… Flanders was the hardest race I've ever done in my life. It really makes you realise the level that's in the women's peloton is really crazy right now.
"But it's been pretty cool to ride those races and then go back to the likes of Dwars door Vlaanderen at a bit of a nicer level, and I can actually feel like quite competitive at that level. And Brugge de Panne as well was a nicer race for me. Those Races really bring me on in leaps and bounds.
"My experience in Flanders was that I felt strong there but I crashed coming into Oudenaarde, crashed pretty hard. And then I was just chasing all day. I got back to the bunch before the Koppenberg and then I had to walk up that, but everybody was in the same boat.
"After the Koppenberg everybody was fragmented into little groups. I didn't get back to the bunch and then they pulled us from the race - the riders who hadn't formed another bunch. So I was close to getting to the finish of Flanders but I just needed to not have a crash and be well positioned."
Griffin said races like Tour of Flanders and Gent Wevelgem were different because the biggest teams in the sport field all of their top riders. In many other races, she said, the teams were often a mix of two or three top names along with younger or developing riders.
"When (the top teams) have that full line-up, all hitters and they're all pulling at the same time... If you don't have that established respect as a team yet, it's hard to get well positioned before the key sections. And if you're not well positioned before those key sectors you can lose so many places.
"It's literally all about being in the right place but it's a hard thing to learn; that if you don't put yourself in exactly the right place you're behind crashes, slow punctures and everything else. It is Belgium after all."
