Mia Griffin is first Irish woman to ride in all three Grand Tours

Irish champion Mia Griffin of Picnic PostNL on the road towards the summit of L'Angliru on the final stage of Vuelta 2026 today (Photo: Rafa Gomez-SCA-Cor Vos)

Mia Griffin (Picnic PostNL) told stickybottle the final two stages of La Vuelta would not be for her, considering the sheer difficulty of the climbing.

But the Kilkenny rider, and Irish road race champion, has survived on the feared slopes of the Angliru today, Saturday, to finish the race. She is the first Irish woman to compete in all three Grand Tours.

Griffin made her Tour de France debut last year when she made history with Lara Gillespie (UAE Team ADQ) and Fiona Mangan, then riding for Winspace Orange Seal. They were the first Irish women to ever ride the French Grand Tour.

And while Mangan and Gillespie have ridden both the Tour and Vuelta during their careers, they are yet to make their Giro debut. That means Griffin is the first Irish woman to compete in the full set of cycling's Grand Tours.

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However, as Griffin was forced out of the Giro last year, opting not to start on the penultimate day as she was nursing crash injuries, an Irish woman is yet to finish all three Grand Tours.

She began the Vuelta on lead-out train duties for Italian team mate Eleonora Ciabocco, who had high hopes before she crashed on stage 2 and was diagnosed with multiple broken bones, forcing her out.

Griffin then refocussed and took 20th and 19th in the bunch sprints that settled stages 4 and 5, before bracing for the final two stages yesterday and today.

While there was the Les Praeres Nava climb to contend with to finish yesterday, Friday, averaging more than 12 per cent gradient, today's stage was by far the hardest.

It featured no fewer than 4,000m of elevation gain, with four categorised climbs including the big finish on L'Angliru; a 12km HC climb with an average gradient of more than 12 per cent, pushing over 20 per cent at places.

Eventual runner-up today, and overall winner, Paula Blasi, second from left, makes an early move on L’angliru with Marion Bunel, leading the young rider classification (Photo: Toni Baixauli)

Though Griffin was in survival mode, she knew that was going to be the case. But she has coped well over the past few days, especially for a rider who has competed on track at the Olympics and favours flatter terrain, and sprinting, over the big mountains.

She finished 89th yesterday, in a small group just over 10 minutes down on stage winner, Anna van der Breggen (Team SD Worx - Protime), who rolled back the years to claim the stage and take the maglia rosa.

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Today, Saturday, Griffin was 88th, some 30 minutes down on flying stage winner Petra Stiasny (Human Powered Health).

The Swiss rider was the first woman to ever win on the Angliru as today was the first time any race had finished on the hellish climb.

Paula Blasi (UAE Team ADQ) was 2nd today, after also being runner-up yesterday, at 23 seconds, while Juliette Berthet (FDJ United-SUEZ) was 3rd at 43 seconds.

And when race leader van der Breggen could not match the pace from at the front - after the classy Blasi rode away solo very early - she finished 5th at 59 seconds and lost the overall victory.

That general classification win went to Blasi. The 23-year-old was overhauled and dropped for the stage win by Stiasny. But she did enough to win overall by 24 seconds from van der Breggen, with Marion Bunel (Team Visma | Lease a Bike) 3rd at 49 seconds.

That is a huge win for Blasi, who also claimed victory in Amstel Gold Race last month, and a massive day for Spanish cycling.

She is the first Spanish woman to win La Vuelta and the home nation has not had a win in the men's race since Alberto Contador in 2014.

Blasi's victory in Amstel and in this race also heralds the unexpected launch of another top tier rider for Spain. Her rapid ascent comes two years, almost to the day, after she rode her first UCI-ranked race.

Griffin was in 73rd overall, almost 47 minutes down. She placed 19th and 20th in the sprint finishes of stages 4 and 5, on Wednesday and Thursday.

The 27-year-old is in the first months of her three-year contract with World Tour team Picnic PostNL and having had a smooth run-in to this Vuelta, and finished the race, her form should really jump forward now.

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