Winner in Kilkenny, winner in Laois! Stage one winner Goergen doubles up in Mountrath

Rás na mBan travelled to County Laois for a testing third stage today, with Océane Goergen (Ladynamips RVC) crossing the line first ahead of Britain’s Amelia Cebak (Smurfit Westrock CT) in second, with Gabrielle Fox (Greenmount CA) the best of the Irish in third place.

Goergen’s victory doubles her tally after taking the opening stage of this year’s race and will go some way to overcoming a disappointing stage two yesterday, which saw her relinquish the magenta jersey.

Cebak’s strong finish earned her six bonus seconds, which promoted her to the top of the Rás na mBan overall standings and into the magenta jersey, elevating her ahead of compatriot and overnight leader Alice McWilliam by a solitary second.

Following yesterday’s torrential rain showers, a dry forecast will have been welcomed by the riders ahead of this morning’s roll-out from Portlaoise, which featured a ceremonial start at Laois County Council offices before the race proceeded towards the Slieve Bloom mountains and the finish in Mountrath.

With the fearsome first category ascent of The Cut splitting an otherwise flat stage, the opening 40 kilometres saw multiple attacks from several riders, with many clearly intent on creating a gap ahead of the seven-kilometre climb.

The aggression finally paid off for 13 riders, who established a gap which quickly reached a minute by the foot of the day’s only categorised climb. That advantage placed Danish rider Gertrud Riis Madsen as the provisional leader on the road for much of the day, having started the stage just 10 seconds behind magenta jersey McWilliam.

Young fans cheer on the peloton PICTURE: Lorraine O’Sullivan

On the climb, Wexford rider Linda Kelly moved to the front of the chasing group to set a fierce pace, with McWilliam also contributing in bringing the gap to the break down to 36 seconds by the summit.
The leading group also thinned down on the toughest climb of this year’s race, with just eight riders remaining in front at the top where Team Greece’s Eleftheria Giachou claim the maximum 12 points in the mountains standings.

Classification leader Noémie Abgrall’s overnight tally of 15 points was enough for the Ladynamips RVC rider to retain possession of the IVCA Wicklow 200 Queen of the Mountains jersey, however she is now joined on the same number of points by Denmark’s Gertrud Riis Madsen (Team Aalborg Sparekassen), who sits second in the competition on countback.

A rapid descent from The Cut preceded a mostly flat 40-kilometre run to the finish in Mountrath, where the eight riders remaining in the breakaway took advantage of the lack of cohesion in the chasing group to extend their advantage to a maximum of 1m22s.

Riis Madsen took a single bonus second at the intermediate sprint behind Océane Goergen and the Danish rider was thus the virtual leader of the general classification for much of the afternoon.

The gap to the leaders would soon be reduced, however, as the WV Breda team of stage two winner Noor Dekker joined forces with Abgrall’s Ladynamips RVC team, who drove the pace to finally reel in the breakaway with just seven kilometres to go. That break contained two of Abgrall’s team mates but neither was within two minutes of the overall lead so the junction was made and the lead group swelled to 35 riders as the finish approached.

An immediate solo counter-attack by Team Aalborg’s Louise Norman Hansen threatened to upset the sprinters but the Danish powerhouse was brought back inside the final three kilometres to set up a sprint finish.

On the final drag to the line in Mountrath, Goergen timed her sprint perfectly to hold off the powerful Cebak and Fox. The Parisian claimed her second stage victory in three days, moving her to the top of the Cycling Ireland Points classification in the process.

Fox’s third place finish earned her four bonus seconds, which was enough to promote the County Armagh native to the top of the Kilkenny County Council Best Irish Rider standings.

Likewise for Cebak, the bonus seconds at the finish both helped her extend her lead in the Sport Ireland Best Young Rider standings, and move the Briton into the overall Rás na mBan leader’s magenta jersey.
Tomorrow sees the riders return to County Kilkenny for another challenging stage, with the 101-kilometre trek taking in three categorised climbs on the route from Kilkenny City to The Rower.