Ras na mBan

Stage 4
The mist hung low on the water as we woke up to our third day of racing in the Ireland. The local girls, seeing that we looked rather dismayed as we ate our breakfast, exclaimed: "This is true Irish weather, girls!"

We were assured that the mist, rain and wind would clear but it was still pretty wet as we attempted to warm up our tired legs.

Stage 4 took us west of Sneem, along a beautiful, rolling coast road and up a 6km climb followed by a 6km descent into the town of Waterville. We then rode around a small triangular "loop" and turned back onto the same road to complete the course in reverse (around 90km in total).

View the route

The tourists were out in force and it was really special to have crowds cheering us on as we went past view points and through villages.

The pace slightly steadier but the ride was complicated by rough road surfaces with large "cateyes" down the centre and the rain, which made the descents pretty hairy at times.

The mist and rain came down as we approached the top of the first major climb. Squadra Donne did well to hang on to stay with the main bunch, as the lead riders attacked and counter-attacked in an attempt to claim the "Queen of the Hills" title.

Iona then attacked and broke away from the main bunch, staying away for the best part of 10 miles and gaining around 40 seconds on the bunch at one point.

The rain continued to come down hard. Squadra Donne worked hard to stay at the front of the bunch to avoid the "dodgy" wheels further back...

... but Sarah was the first to hit the asphalt, along with a Dutch girl, shortly before the 2nd climb. Thankfully, her jersey bore the brunt of the impact and much to Jon and Steve's amazement, she jumped back on her bike to complete the rest of the stage. (Big thanks to Ed from Rapha for sorting her bike out).

Further ahead, Iona, Steph, Naomi and Vicky were working hard to stay with the main bunch over the climb. Vicky eventually lost contact with them and despite a valiant attempt to catch them, she was unable to hang on.

Iona and Naomi were caught up in a crash, losing valuable seconds but thankfully without sustaining any major injuries. Steph continued with the main bunch, putting in a superb performance to finish 6th overall.

Stage 4 results:
6 Steph
19 Iona
22 Naomi
35 Vicky
39 Sarah

Final Results
After the four stages, Squadra Donne finished 3rd in the team competition. 

Individual results:
14 Steph 6h28'22"
16 Iona 6h29'10"
17 Naomi 6h29'26"
35 Sarah 6h50'26"
36 Vicky 6h52'24"

Great performances all round :-)

We all had a fantastic weekend racing.

We would like to thank Steve and Jon for all their encouragement over the course of the weekend; our sponsors: Shutt VR and Bikefood for their ongoing support of the team; Womens Cycling Ireland for organising the event; and the staff at Sneem Hotel for looking after us so well.

PS:
Some thoughts on Stage 4 from Jon:

The final stage was a mixture of bad luck and excellent racing. Firstly Stephania was placed 6th on the stage, just 5 seconds from the winner; the bad luck was Iona and Naomi crashing with just 5 kilometres to go to the finish so losing a minute each, this of course affected their General classification placings. Iona had been away on her own for 10 miles before being dragged back by the bunch.

However Sarah was also involved in a crash after 58 kilometres, she had ripped her race jersey so the team car stopped, got out a new jersey, took off her race numbers and put them on the new jersey - straightened her handlebars and despite a cut to her finger and sore ribs she got going quickly - although felt the discomfort later after the race finished.

A very good stage race for the team: 3rd team, 3 riders in the top 20 overall and if it were not for the crashes it could have been so much better...