LIVE UPDATES | Elite & U23 Women’s Road Race Championships

Welcome to stickybottle’s ‘live updates’ coverage of the women’s elite and U23 road race at the National Road Championships from Yellow Furze, Co Meath.

The race is being fought out over a distance of 117km, with the riders completing four laps of the 25.3km main circuit followed by one passage of the 9.4km smaller lap before the big finish.

Women’s National Road Race Championships Live Updates

  • Mia Griffin (Roland) wins in a sprint. She is the new Irish elite road race champion – she demolished that sprint! Caoimhe O’Brien is 2nd and Marine Lenehan was 3rd. In the U23, Emma Jeffers won from Aoife O’Brien and Abi Conway. All of those riders were in the same front group, but Griffin best by a big margin.
  • Benezet Minns is caught!!
  • Lucy Benezet Minns (Lotto Ladies) now has 10 seconds. Fiona Mangan is turning the screw in the group behind.
  • With 4km to go, the gap is 12 seconds. Can she hang on?
  • With 5km to go, Lucy Benezet Minns (Lotto Ladies) leads this 117km national title race by 12 seconds from a group of nine. In that group are: Fiona Mangan (Winspace Orange Seal), Caoimhe O’Brien (Cynicsa), Aoife O’Brien (DAS Hutchinson), Mia Griffin (Roland), Linda Kelly (Spin the Bean), Emma Jeffers (Liv AlUla Jayco), Marine Lenehan (Dan Morrissey), Aine Doherty (Dan Morrissey) and Abi Conway (Westport Covey).
  • She is holding this gap at about 15 seconds. We are now into fast sections – very good surface and a tailwind. This is the fastest section of the course.
  • Looks like the nine chasers are starting to cooperate in the chase of lone leader Lucy Benezet Minns (Lotto Ladies).
  • Lucy Benezet Minns (Lotto Ladies) has passed through the finish line to start the final lap of 9.4km. She has 18 seconds now, her gap going back up again. She is absolutely legging it. She knows this is a really big moment. Still a long way to go…
  • The gap between lone leader Lucy Benezet Minns (Lotto Ladies) and the nine chasers is now just five seconds. She hit a stretch of headwind and it has undermined her efforts. However, the first-year U23 rider – who won the junior road race crown last year – still leads.
  • With about 12km to go, Lucy Benezet Minns (Lotto Ladies) now has 16 seconds. Fiona Mangan initially went after her, and then Mia Griffin (Roland) took up the chase. But they both backed off and Benezet Minns kept ploughing away.
  • Lucy Benezet Minns (Lotto Ladies) – who is a climber and not a sprinter – has attacked again. She has a gap and she is away. She has eight seconds on a section of the course that is wide open; a really good move by Benezet Minns.
  • As Caoimhe O’Brien (Cynicsa) is caught, Lucy Benezet Minns (Lotto Ladies) attacks again but is caught. And that start-stop period of racing has resulted in some stalls. Aine Doherty (Dan Morrissey) is back on to the group, making for 10 riders again.
  • Caoimhe O’Brien (Cynicsa) is now the latest to attack. There are some great riders in here and many of them are good finishers. So if you have no sprint and you are in this group, you have to attack. Even if you have a solid, but not spectacular, sprint you have to attack.
  • Lucy Benezet Minns (Lotto Ladies) has now attacked, got a gap but then been chased down as we are now up the final climb and back down it. We are headed for the small lap very soon; that 9.4km lap to finish.
  • As the gradient kicks in here, Aine Doherty (Dan Morrissey) is in a bit of trouble, going off the back.
  • Approaching the second climb on this last lap and Mangan goes again but is covered again.
  • Defending champion Fiona Mangan (Winspace) puts in an attack but it’s covered.
  • Esther Wong (Torelli) and Gabrielle Fox (Greenmount CA) are still chasing the 10 leaders but they are at two minutes.
  • This has been more cagey than the junior race this morning. However, it’s hard out there and it’s a very good quality group.
  • We are now starting the final large lap of 25.3km. Once we have this done, it’s a final small 9.4km lap.
  • This 10-rider group is continuing to work together, everyone rolling through. There’s a few chasing groups behind, of three and four riders, but nobody is coming back to this 10-strong group.
  • In the 10-rider group are: Fiona Mangan (Winspace Orange Seal), Caoimhe O’Brien (Cynicsa), Aoife O’Brien (DAS Hutchinson), Mia Griffin (Roland), Linda Kelly (Spin the Bean), Emma Jeffers (Liv AlUla Jayco), Lucy Benezet Minns (Lotto Ladies), Marine Lenehan (Dan Morrissey), Aine Doherty (Dan Morrissey) and Abi Conway (Westport Covey).
  • We have two of the four 25.3km laps completed. Still 10 riders left in the ‘bunch’.
  • There are just 10 riders left in this group. The second half of this second lap has produced more intense racing.
  • We are coming off the second climb on the course, a good few riders are back through the cavalcade having been dropped.
  • That trio has been caught but their move, and the chase after them, was a serious bit of action. Lots of riders were spat out the back.
  • Mia Griffin (Roland) and Grace Reynolds (Smurfitt Westrock) have now joined Kelly off the front. That’s a strong group.
  • We’re almost halfway around the second lap and we’ve a big attack by Linda Kelly (Spin the Bean). She won silver at the TT on Thursday night and she’s opened a gap here.
  • Mia Griffin (Roland) taking it up on the front on the first climb of this second lap. But no splits yet.
  • The first lap is now complete – three big ones and one small one to go. Let’s see how these climbs go on the second lap, the first of those is up shortly. The opening lap may not have resulted in a breakaway but a few riders have been dropped.
  • Abi Conway (Westport Covey) has punctured and that’s a bad time to have a setback as the speed is really on now. We’ve 25km completed.
  • Gabriella Fox (Greemount CA) with a really strong attack on a downhill stretch with over 20km done. She really sent it there, a huge burst forward. But after pulling out a gap she was caught.
  • Fiona Mangan (Winspace Orange Seal) now with an attack, but it doesn’t stick.
  • Interesting fact about this field is that none of the riders has a team mate today. There’s no club or team with two or more riders in this race.
  • Marine Lenehan (Dan Morrissey) with a dig off the front, but it fails to force a split.
  • Still all together approximately half way around the opening lap of four.
  • Fiona Mangan (Winspace Orange Seal), who won the TT and road race at last year’s Champs, is back this time around. She didn’t ride the TT on Thursday but she’s in this bunch today gunning for another win.
  • Group still together after that first climb. We have 12 elites in this race and eight U23s.
  • We’re on to the first climb now, no attacks yet, but this is the first test.
  • There are two climbs on this circuit, they did more damage than expected in the junior men’s race earlier today and they are likely to play a big part in this women’s title race.
  • We’re just underway at the women’s U23 and elite road race at the National Road Championships and it’s quite a sedate start – no moves off the front just yet.