Fiona Mangan rued just missing the front group today at La Vuelta Femenina by Carrefour.es (2.WWT) when the field split in crosswinds with about 60km of stage 3 completed.
Ireland's Mangan said the divide between the Continental teams in the race and the bigger World Cup squads was obvious to see in that section of the race as the field split, and also just before the peloton turned into the crosswinds and the field broke up.
"It was all calm until about 60k," she said, adding while she punctured about 40km into today's stage 3 - some 157.8km from Elche de la Sierra to La Roda - she got back with relative ease.
"As I was trying to get back on it was just a really long stretch of road for about 20 kilometers so it was the better time to get a puncture. And then at about 60k there was a really sharp turn and right after that was when the crosswinds started."
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Mangan said even before the turn the pace was increasing as the World Tour teams were moving up towards the front in anticipation of what was about to happen.
"You could see at that point the bigger teams were moving up, they'd gotten the call to move up and that created havoc and then from 60km the peloton just split. There was one main group that went clear and I was in a big second group behind that. And then it was just 100 kilometers in echelons from that point."
When the groups settled down, Team Coop-Hitec Products went to the front of Mangan's group as they had nobody in the front split. The Irish rider joined the Norwegian team's riders rotating at the front in a bid to get maximum shelter and contain the gap to the front group as much as they could. And while that lead group numbered almost 100 riders, it split significantly during the rest of the stage.
"It was chaotic but if you could stay in the echelon at the front of that group it was fine. But for 100 kilometers it was definitely draining, it was a tough day out. I'm happy to have finished safely.
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"I was a bit disappointed not to make that first group obviously. But my group was fully Continental teams, you could see the divide," she said of the World Tour teams riding away. "And when you're trying to move up on your own into the World Tour group, it is tough. But it was a good day out; again lots of lessons that I learned."
The stage was eventually won, in a sprint from a 56-rider front group, by race leader Marianne Vos (Team Jumbo-Visma) from Charlotte Kool (Team DSM), in a reversal of yesterday's 1-2. Chloe Dygert (Canyon-SRAM Racing) was 3rd today for the second consecutive day; the US rider's European road race comeback after a horror crash at the Worlds in 2020 now gathering pace.
Mangan eventually finished 104th today, in a group at 8:20. The Irish woman said yesterday stage 2 was a great experience and she was in the main group until the field split somewhat on a climb with 20 km to go. She finished 115th, some 4:09 down.
"It was quite nervy yesterday, there was a ton of crashes," she said. "It was a technical course as well and I think a lot of people were trying to keep their climbers safe. We also just had those nerves that people get at the start of the stage race. But I felt it was a lot calmer today and the roads helped; they were flatter and there was less road furniture.
"I was kind of targeting these flatters stages but, at the same time, when you're competing against the best riders in the world… The level is incredibly high."
