Fiona Mangan has taken her best result of the season today on the opening day of French stage race, Tour Cycliste Féminin International de l'Ardèche (2.1). Compatriot Lara Gillespie, riding for the UAE Team ADQ World Tour squad, was also in the mix at the pointy end after 105.7km of racing.
Limerick's Mangan, who rode the women's Vuelta with Soltec Team earlier this year, is now competing for an American team, Cynisca Cycling. She took 7th place in the bunch sprint that decided the opening stage into Ruoms.
Gillespie placed 12th, also on the same time as winner and first race leader of the event, Daria Pikulik (Human Powered Health). The Polish rider got the better of Michaela Drummond (Farto-BTC Women's Cycling Team) on the line, with Silvia Zanardi (BePink-GOLD) in 3rd.
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Ireland's Megan Armitage (Arkéa Pro Cycling Team), fresh from her 5th place overall at Giro Toscana Int Femminile (2.2), also finished in the bunch today, in 61st place. She spent most of the stage on the attack, in an 11-rider breakaway which gained over two minutes at one point. They were gradually reeled in and with about 5km to go Armitage attacked from the lead group and went solo, but was swallowed up by the bunch with 3km remaining.
Armitage, who has signed for EF Education-Cannondale for next year, has a strong chance in the overall over the next six days, while both Mangan and Gillespie could also take a stage victory.
Tomorrow's stage 2 is 91km, starting and finishing in Nîmes, and will unfold on mainly flat terrain. And while the following stages 3 and 4 are also mostly flat - though still may see the race split - the climbs really kick in on stage 5. There are three cat 2 ascents and the cat 1 Mont Lozère to finish. There are further climbs on stages 6 and 7, though the hardest finish is Mont Lozère on Saturday's stage 5.
