Now starting a new three-year contract with World Tour team Picnic PostNL, Kilkenny's Mia Griffin has flown out to the Middle East to take on UAE Tour as her first assignment of the 2026 campaign.
She told stickybottle her tenure with the team so far has made it felt like the first time she's really been a pro; with sprint lead-out drills a new, welcome, challenge.
"I'm prepared and just good to go now; ready to get stuck into the season," Griffin said by phone as she was waiting to board her flight to UAE. "It's been a long, nice, winter and there just comes a moment where you thinking 'right, let's just race now'.”
The Irish champion also opened her season last year at UAE Tour and took 4th on the opening stage, which was a fantastic result. This time around it will be a little different, as she has been assigned a team role. But as she sets out her racing schedule deep into March, she believes chances of her own will come soon.
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Griffin gets the four-stage UAE Tour World Tour race underway tomorrow, Thursday, with fellow team pursuit Olympian, Lara Gillespie (UAE Team ADQ), as in the field.
"At UAE Tour I'm going to be doing the lead-out for Rachele (Barbieri)," Griffin said of her 28-year-old Italian team mate who was 2nd on a UAE stage two years ago. "And then hopefully I'll get my opportunities later in the year, which is nice as well."
After UAE Tour, Griffin's next planned assignment is Omloop Nieuwsblad on Opening Weekend - Saturday, February 28th - in Belgium. That will be followed by FENIX Omloop van het Hageland and Beobank Samyn Ladies, also in Belgium, on March 1st and 2nd.
There are then a further brace of Belgian classics - XINA Leeuw-Oetingen p/b Lotto and Danilith Nokere Koerse - on March 11th and 18th. Slightly longer term, and though nothing is set in stone at present, a debut appearance in La Vuelta looks on the cards for Griffin.
The terrain in the Tour de France will be so hilly this year it will likely rule her out of a second appearance in that race in 2026.
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So how is she getting on with her new team?
"It's been different because, in a way, it almost feels like, honestly, the first proper contract for me. It's such a professional set-up," she said. "I'm super happy with that, it's really nicely organised.
“Even things like train journeys... they're covered and booked by the team, everything's done really nicely in advance. They have the Dutch directness but they also have the organisation, which is second to none really."
Team lead-out drills, protocol
Like most World Tour teams, Picnic PostNL prefers its riders to be coached in-house, meaning a change of coaches for Griffin for her winter training. Most of the miles were done in Switzerland, where she now lives with partner Robin Froidevaux, the former Swiss champion who rides for Tudor Pro Cycling.
Griffin added her training schedule in winter 2024-25 was top notch, meaning subtle changes over this winter rather than those of a 'root and branch' variety.
"The training has maybe been more focused on the sprint side of it, compared to last year when we were just really trying to build the engine as much as possible," she said. "I feel the improvement has been in things like repeatability, rather than the actual raw power numbers."
One change has involved being part of a sprint group within the team at training camps and undertaking sprint simulation, or lead-out drills.
"It was good to go into that detail... about how they want the sprint done. They approach it with a method. In sprints things are, to a certain extent, controllable. But they've processes that they put in place, and you see it in the men's team as well, they have a protocol.
"And because of that, I feel like a lot of people on the team end up being able to do some good things (towards aiding a sprint) because the team works really well together.
“So it's been really nice to see how that functions. I'm just excited now to get started, get racing, and I feel really nicely prepared."
