When Mia Griffin rode the World Track Championships with the Irish national team in Roubaix in 2021 she took herself off to the outdoor Vélodrome André Pétrieux down the road. She wanted to ride a lap of the famed track, which hosts the finish of Paris-Roubaix each year. The Kilkenny woman was a cycling tourist for a day. She simply wanted to savour the place that has become so iconic in the sport.
Though that was just over 17 months ago, back then thoughts of one day riding 'Hell of the North' herself were a mere pipe dream. However, her world has changed significantly since then. The Irish team pursuit line-up she is part of on the track has smashed the national record several times and 24-year-old Griffin has moved up to World Tour level on the road.
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Yesterday she pinned on numbers and raced Paris-Roubaix; the first Irish woman ever to do so. Something that was just a notion only two winters ago was suddenly a reality. And though Griffin was battered with bad luck, she made it through on a day when 40 riders weren't among the survivors. She told stickybottle her lap of Vélodrome André Pétrieux yesterday - after 145km of racing over 17 sectors of pavé - was very different to her sightseeing spin around it back in October, 2021.
"It was really cool," she said of entering the velodrome to take the bell and then finish. "There was just a very special atmosphere. After the race we went over to the famous showers. At that stage you could have just had a shower in the bus but I'm thinking 'I have to go over and do this legendary thing'.
"In our team meeting before the race, the DS showed us a picture of the velodrome and said 'this is where you want to make it'. And after a war of a day, to make it to the velodrome was really quite special. I think it was really cool to experience that. I'm just glad I cracked on and got it done. I'm happy that I fought well."
Griffin and her Israel Premier Tech Roland team mates - like every other team in the race - tried to get in the early breakaway. When those efforts came to nothing, the Irish rider focussed on trying to be well positioned before the pavé sectors started with 63km covered. However, just 2km before that point she crashed - among 20 to 25 riders to come down when a couple of riders ahead of her tangled.
Griffin quickly got back on her bike and gave chase, regaining the peloton on the third sector of cobbles. However, she then immediately hit a pothole and needed a change of bike - from her team car which was 23 vehicles back in the cavalcade.
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"At that stage I was saying to myself, 'Jesus I'm probably not going to finish this now'. But surprisingly there was a lot of people who were dropping from groups. So then it was about just trying to stay calm and trying to collect as many people on the way as I could."
Griffin settled into a group of about 10 riders and though many of them did not want to work, they made it to the finish well inside the time limit. The Irish woman finished in 83rd place, some 13:36 down on Alison Jackson (EF Education-TIBCO-SVB), the Canadian who won from the early breakaway. Most importantly, Griffin is the first Irish woman to finish the race.
She described the fight for position before the pavé sectors began as "carnage" and "a war" but said she thoroughly enjoyed the day and soaked in the occasion, even on the start line.
"I was able to enjoy some parts of it and then other parts it was just about trying to get (to the finish). With the group I was in not working very well together, that was kind of annoying. And we spent a lot of time just trying to get the group to work. I couldn't really enjoy it until the last two sectors because I wanted to get Carrefour de l'Arbre done. That was the last really hard section and once we got that done you could kind of relax a little bit and enjoy coming in - doing the last few kilometers and then riding around the velodrome."
She said she was also more confident on the pavé that she expected, mainly because her recon ride midweek was in wet and muddy conditions, which had mercifully dried up in time for the race. She also heard he name being shouted from the roadside, by Irish people, several times.
However, Griffin also revealed her mother, Maria, is still too nervous - "fairly terrified" - to watch her racing, especially in an event as dangerous as Paris-Roubaix. Her father, PJ, is an avid cyclist with Barrow Wheelers and can't get enough of the sport and his daughter's place in it.
"He's so excited, he loves it," she said. "With every race I do, he just has a huge interest and huge excitement about it all. And he's the reason why I'm still cycling, because of his support through the years."
Asked if she thought she would ever ride Paris-Roubaix when she visited the velodrome in 2021, she said: "No, to be honest I didn't. I was saying to myself that day 'I probably won't ever ride Roubaix though I'd love to'. So even then it was a dream. It's the race I've always wanted to do since I started cycling."
