Freya Whiteside (Simpson Nouvelles) is the new senior women's champion having ridden solo to the gold medal at the National Cyclocross Championships in Castle Saunderson, Co Cavan, on Sunday.
Asked on she felt on crossing the line the winner, Whiteside laughed and said "dead". She added the muddy conditions meant the riders were on the pedals and battling the whole way around the circuit.
Having grown up in Yorkshire, the 20-year-old has raced since she was a small child and has declared for Ireland as half of her family is from the North.
She pushed clear on her own early in the national title race, run off in muddy conditions after frost on Saturday gave way to rain, and claimed gold by exactly one minute from Greta Lawless (Dawson Racing), who took silver, a repeat of 12 months ago.
Advertisement
Last year's champion, Esther Wong (Spectra Racing) was not as dominant as 12 months ago and had to settle for the bronze, some 2:13 down on the winner and 1:13 down on Lawless in the Breffni Wheelers promotion.
"It's a very a very grippy course. It was completely different compared to doing course practice yesterday (in frosty conditions). I was on Flandrians, on a lower grip tyre, but today I looked at the course when I got here and decided on full muds straight away.
"It was a lot slower going than yesterday, when there was nice flowing sections, good for rest. But today there was no rest anywhere."
Of her expectations before coming to Ireland for the race, she said she felt she would have her work cut out to make an impression and maybe win.
Related News
"I thought it'd be quite a hard battle, and it was a very hard battle. But I've been building form throughout the season so I felt quite confident coming in to this, I had good legs," she said.
Clockside from top left: Best junior on the day Ffion Dolan of TC Racing, Jean Wilson of Epic MTB, who retained her Masters title, senior silver medal winner Greta Lawless of Dawson Racing and Roisin Lally of Gritty Race Team in the pits (Photos: Toby Watson)
Whiteside continued: "I've done quite well in the (British) National Series, I won the under-23 series and I've been getting quite consistent results towards the end of the series with a few 2nd places and mostly top 10s throughout. So it's been quite a good series."
Though she has raced in Britain in recent months against last year's Irish nationals winner, Wong, Whiteside said that, overall, coming to the championships was something of an unknown quantity for her.
"I didn't really know anyone else so I wasn't quite sure how I'd do against everyone. But it was a good race, it was fun. It feels amazing to win, I never really thought I'd get this far, I'm so happy."
Whiteside said she had made her first efforts to declare for Ireland a couple of years ago but her "paper work got a bit messed up". However, that has since been resolved and she has declared for Ireland via her father, who is from Belfast.
Looking ahead to the years ago, she said she was hopeful of representing Ireland on the European scene, having started cycling as a small child and racing since U8.
"I'd hope so," she said of representing Ireland in the future. "I really want to do a few World Cups, World Champs, European Champs and see how I'd do."
