Aoife O’Brien dominated the second stage of Rás na mBan into Gorey, with teammates Emma Jeffers and Emer Heverin following close behind in second and third.
22-year-old O’Brien’s victory also moves her to the top of the overall standings, having finished second on yesterday’s opening stage behind Team Denmark’s Alma Rasmussen, who lost several minutes after an eventful day in the magenta jersey.
Riders rolled out from Gorey, Co. Wexford this morning for an undulating 97-kilometre route this morning, featuring two categorised climbs before returning to Gorey town centre for the finish.
2023 Rás na mBan winner Manon de Boer (WV Breda) claimed the maximum IVCA Wicklow 200 Queen of the Mountains points on the first of those categorised climbs of Rednagh, just ahead of Noémie Garnier (Vendée Féminine RVC). The French rider then reversed those positions on the following category two ascent of Sliabh Buí. The Sliabh Buí result elevated Garnier into the classification lead, just one point ahead of De Boer.
Earlier in the stage, magenta jersey Rasmussen was one of several riders caught up in a crash. A chase of some 30 kilometres ensued for the Dane before re-joining the lead group, only to pay for that effort and get distanced on the Sliabh Buí climb a short time later.
That left O’Brien as the provisional leader on the road, with Team Ireland taking over control of the pacing at the front of the lead group, culminating in a dominant one-two-three result for the young national team.
Speaking after the stage, the Mullingar rider praised the efforts of her teammates as they worked to set up the sprint finish on the return to Gorey.
“It was such a hard race,” she said. “All the girls worked so hard during the stage, so to pull off a win and also get the magenta jersey is really nice.
“It was a bit chaotic. There was a crash behind a lot of us going into one of the towns early on. I was looking around for the race leader for a while and I couldn’t see her and I didn’t know what happened. Then one of the girls came up and said that she was two minutes back.
“We were just riding the pace of the peloton and she came back, so I’m thinking ‘OK, fair game.’ After the second Queen of the Mountain then, myself and another girl from Denmark got away but were pulled back.
“Then the [race] Comm came up and said ‘you’ve a minute and a half on the race leader.’ So then myself and the girls were just ploughing it on the front to keep the pace up and maintain the gap.
“Coming into the finish Emma [Jeffers] said she was feeling good, she did an unreal job yesterday leading me out, so we were to go for her. We kind of lost each other coming into the finish. I saw Emer and she went. Then I looked back to see if Emma was on my wheel but I couldn’t see her so I just went, I didn’t want anyone else coming around us.
“We got one, two, three in the end, so it was a really nice day.
“I did this stage two years ago when it first came to Gorey and I got fourth, so I was kind of coming a bit with revenge.”
O’Brien now leads the overall standings ahead of Jeffers at 10 seconds and Heverin at 12 seconds, with French rider Océane Goergen (Vendée Féminine RVC) the nearest challenger to the Irish trio in fourth at 16 seconds.
The Cycling Ireland Points and Sport Ireland Best Young Rider classifications are also led by O’Brien, while Gabrielle Fox takes over the lead in the Best Irish Rider standings from Cycling Ulster teammate Erin Creighton, who was forced to abandon the race after the earlier crash.
Today sees riders take on a new 103-kilometre stage, starting and finishing in Carrick-on-Suir and featuring the category one ascent of Tickincor.
