Claire @ the Ras na mBan

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Ballymena Road Club Chain Reaction Cycles rider Claire Gillespie, from Broughshane, took part in the recent Ras na mBan ladies stage race in County Clare where she represented Cycling Ulster.
Claire is only in her first season of racing and she has made rapid progress since March. It was a major honour to be selected to ride for Ulster in this prestigious event which attracted the top female cyclists from a variety of countries.
This year’s five day six stage event celebrated 27 years of International women’s stage racing in Ireland and was contested by teams and riders from all over Europe, the USA and Australia as well as the top local riders and is the longest and toughest stage race for women in these islands.
The event patron is Sonia O’Sullivan and, since retiring from full time running, former 5000m world champion and Olympic silver medallist O’Sullivan has included cycling in her fitness regime and has recently been drawn to long distance bike events.
The Cobh star, who divides her time between Ireland and Australia, joined the race line up on the Munster team.
Claire gives her own account of the event. "It was a great learning experience for me riding in the Ras na mBan as every stage was extremely challenging.
The level of competition was the highest the race has seen in years and the speed from the start soon split up the peloton of over 100 riders.
The atmosphere of the crowds clapping and cheering really spurred me on as I tried to stay with other riders to get to the finish line. On the first stage I finished with former world 5000 metre running champion Sonya O'Sullivan so I was well chuffed! (Sonya was riding for the Munster team)
We lost a rider from our four woman team on the second day, which was an incredibly hard stage with brutal weather, this left us with just three for the Team Time Trial which made me nervous as the other girls were incredibly strong. This showed with the team’s fantastic time of 21.58.
Unfortunately, during time trial practice (on Friday 13th) I hit the deck and landed on my lower back, I continued through the following stages but disappointingly I was unable to ride Sunday’s final stage.
The team and support during the race was first class and the kind words of support and advice I got from my Ballymena road club friends during the race was very much appreciated and really helped me through it. If you asked me would I do it again? My answer would be. YES DEFO!!  I'm a glutton for punishment”