Armitage can be pleased with Cycling performance

Shinrone’s Megan Armitage was the sole representative for Team Ireland in the Women’s Cycling Road Race Paris, the first time in over twenty years that Ireland has been represented in this event.

Making her Olympic debut, the former Nenagh College student finished 35th in the gruelling 158km race on Sunday, and would have placed much higher if she hadn’t been hampered with 48km to go.

The Shinrone rider was right up at the head of the peloton, throwing in attacks amidst legends like Netherland’s Marianne Vos, when the race re-entered the city with 50km to go but then a rider went down in front of Armitage on a tight corner on the cobbles of Montmartre, forcing her to stop. Detached from the leaders as the race went into its critical criterium stage, with some tough climbs, she just couldn’t make it back up.

It is a measure of how good the 27-year-old was feeling at the time that she was disappointed with her placing.

“I was well positioned going into the circuits but, just as I entered the first climb there was a crash, and I got stuck behind it,” she said.

“I needed to be quicker to get back up to the front group then, but the group I was in had teammates in the break at that point and weren’t co-operating.

“In the final 2km I went with another girl and still felt really good.”

She added: “I’m happy with how I approached the race, just disappointed with the result. It was an incredible experience. I never expected to be here. I could almost hear my family calling my name every time on the circuit, there were so many Irish there!

“I had bad luck, being behind the crash and not in front of it. These things happen, but before that, I rode a really good race. It's the best I’ve ever felt in a race, just not the result I hoped for.”

Armitage’s dramatic rise from cycling socially during lockdown to a professional career within four years, is already a remarkable one and her brave attacking performance today underlined her potential.