Ras na mBan

Chips Lovell

Rás na mBan, the biggest race on the calendar for women in Ireland, is getting going in Sneem, Co Kerry this evening. It'll run over three days and takes in some of the toughest roads in Kerry. Good luck to boardsies LDB and godihatedehills. Show those euro pros how its done.

You can follow the race on Twitter here.

Peterx

Best of luck to all the Irish girls taking part. Hopefully they get a good race over the 3 days. 60km this evening to set them off.

Peterx

Stage one over.
A small break finished ahead.
The irish team, mel speath & co all finished in a bunch behind them.
Most importantly my informant is loving it

edit - i just saw that twitter link, that's cool..

Chips Lovell

Olivia Dillon won the stage. LDB and godihatedehills finished in one of the chasing bunches. GIHTH said it was bloody tough. IRC's Gillian McDarby was the fastest county rider.

Chips Lovell

Olivia Dillon won stage two today. She's cleaning up at the moment.

Mel Spath, who a lot of you may know from the mtb scene, seems to have been very active at the head of the race today.

dave2pvd

el tonto wrote: »

Olivia Dillon won stage two today. She's cleaning up at the moment.

The American pro showing the Euros how its done

Chips Lovell

Final results here. Olivia Dillon took the overall, but let someone else win the stage for a change. Mel took the county rider classification and finished sixth overall. LDB and godihatedehills finished in the 40s out of 60 odd riders, which is a good showing for their first stage race against such opposition.

Raam

Well done my girl and GodIHateDeHills.

Peterx

Well done all the irish girls and all the first timers. Plenty of lessons learnt the hard way, probably the best way..
It's a great opportunity to do a stage race with support and fair play to all the support teams and mechanics, especially Frank!
Some pretty good average speeds too considering all those hills.

dave2pvd

Those stages were awfully tough. Great to see the Irish women compete so well against the Euros.

Keep an eye out for Olivia Dillon next season. She's on the best pro women's team in the US, and she's far from being just another stagiare with them. She hit some very strong form in the last month or so. Showed she could compete with the fastest.

The Nutty M

Peterx wrote: »

Well done all the irish girls and all the first timers. Plenty of lessons learnt the hard way, probably the best way..
It's a great opportunity to do a stage race with support and fair play to all the support teams and mechanics, especially Frank!
Some pretty good average speeds too considering all those hills.

They were flying,how they have the energy to keep going I do not know,I was tired as could be just rying to keep ahead of them.Get well soon to Caroline,I hear she is coming on well.