Fiona Mangan makes late surge to win Irish road race title

Fiona Mangan (Cynisca Cycling) is the new Irish road race champion after she claimed a dramatic victory in Athea, County Limerick on Saturday. She came home two seconds ahead of Grace Reynolds (Brother UK-Orientation Marketing) and 2023 champion Lara Gillespie (UAE Development Team).

A race run off at a staccato was ultimately decided on two breathless laps of a 5km finishing circuit around Athea. Reynolds had taken advantage of an earlier lull to forge clear alone with more than 40km, opening a maximum lead of more than two minutes.

She still had 35 seconds in hand on a dozen or so riders as she entered the final 10km, with the gap growing and shrinking as the chasers attacked one another in turn.

Megan Armitage (EF Education-Cannondale) had been one of the day’s early aggressors and she was active in the finale along with Gillespie and Aoife O’Brien.

Reynolds’ lead stretched back out to 45 seconds as she took the bell with 45 seconds to go, but that would prove the cue for Mangan, who powered clear of the chasing group and set off in lone pursuit of the leader.

By the approach to the flamme rouge, Mangan would close to within touching distance of Reynolds, but Armitage, a faller earlier in the day, was now winding up the pursuit behind.

“Grace [Reynolds] got away and finished with some ride. We got into a group and I was trying to get everyone to work together to catch her. When the gap started closing, we started kind of playing cat and mouse again. I said I’d wait until the hill here, because I knew after that you just had a descent, so if I go as hard as I can on the hill I’d be able to survive to the descent. 

“So I tried on the first small lap and I couldn’t get away. The last one I just went as hard as I could up the hill. I looked back and saw a gap, so I said ‘OK, I have nothing to lose now.'”

In the final kilometre, Mangan managed to overhaul Reynolds to claim the title, while Gillespie had to settle for third, just two seconds down. Earlier in the week Mangan won the national ITT race.

“To be honest, I feel a bit overwhelmed,” she said to Cycling Ireland afterwards. “I knew I had good legs going into it, and I really did study the course. I came out here last week and did a few good runs of it. It just gives you that confidence then during the race. 

“At Nationals, you never know what’s going to happen. It’s a case of mind your energy but then still trying to keep it hard and aggressive.” 

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