Megan Armitage (Arkéa Pro Cycling Team) has claimed 5th place in the final general classification at AG Tour de la Semois, a UCI 2.2-ranked stage race in Belgium. The Irish rider made the breakaway yesterday, gaining almost two minutes on the peloton, setting herself up for a very strong result on GC.
And while today's 120km second, and final, stage into Bertrix was much hillier, the time gaps at the front of the race today were not as big as yesterday's opener, though the bunch was shredded to pieces today.
Armitage was in a five-rider breakaway yesterday, with Karlijn Swinkels (Team Jumbo-Visma) attacking solo from it with 2km to go. She took the stage win from the others by 13 seconds, with Armitage in 4th place. Today, two of the riders who were in yesterday's breakaway - race leader Swinkels and Clara Koppenburg (Cofidis) - were on the attack again today.
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They came to the finish together, with Swinkels winning the two-up sprint from from Koppenburg; the leading duo some 30 seconds up on the remains of the peloton. That reduced bunch numbered just over 30 riders - after a stage with eight climbs - and included Ireland's Armitage, who was 13th on the stage.
The stage result saw Koppenburg leapfrog from 5th to 2nd on the final general classification, pushing Armitage down one place, to a final finish of 5th overall, some 1:03 down on overall winner Swinkels.
Armitage adds this 5th place to a number of other top GC results this year, including winning Vuelta Extremadura Féminas (2.2) in Spain in March; the first UCI-ranked stage race ever won by an Irish woman. She also placed 13th in Internationale LOTTO Thüringen Ladies Tour (2.Pro) in Germany in May and finished 5th in Giro Toscana Int Femminile (2.2) in Italy last month.
