Megan Armitage took the best result of her career in Spain on Sunday, winning the final stage of the 2.2-ranked Vuelta Extremadura Féminas and taking the overall classification.
The Offaly woman easily beat team-mate Clara Emond in a sprint to the summit of the Piornal climb, with a third Arkéa Pro Cycling Team rider, Maaike Coljé, finishing 19 seconds back in third.
The Arkéa squad had got the race off to a fine start on Friday, winning the opening team time trial. That put Armitage fifth overall on the same time as team-mate and first race leader Marie-Morgane Le Deunff.
She slipped to sixth overall on stage two after Frenchwoman Maëva Squiban (Stade Rochelais Charente-Maritime) won a big bunch sprint and jumped from seventh to first. Armitage then bounced back to secure the final yellow jersey with her fine showing on Sunday’s concluding leg.
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The time bonuses saw her finish the race six seconds clear of Emond in the final overall standings. She also won the points classification and was second to Emond in the best climber contest.
“We knew that we had a really strong team,” she said after the podium presentation. “We knew that basically all three of us had an opportunity to win, so the goal for today was to basically battle it out at the end and see who was the strongest. So it was kind of just fair game to see what was going to happen.
“It was a weird situation when there were three of us and we were all really strong. I can’t thank the team enough. Without the three of us all together it would have been a different story today. So everything that happened today with this victory, I owe it to the team.
“We have a really, really strong team this year so it is super exciting to see what we can do this season.”
Fellow Irishwoman Fiona Mangan’s Soltec squad was 14th in the opening team time trial. She was then 26th and 47th respectively on stages two and three, finishing 43rd overall.
Meanwhile, Sam Bennett will be vying to make a quick recovery from a cold he caught at Paris-Nice, with the virus causing him to leave the race before Saturday’s penultimate stage. Double Tour de France champion Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates squad) won overall. Bennett has a key goal next Saturday in the Milan-San Remo Classic and will hope that exiting Paris-Nice early will help him to recover in time.
Elsewhere, Darren Rafferty finished sixth in the mountains classification and 97th overall in the Istrian Spring Trophy race in Croatia on Sunday. The Hagens Berman Axeon rider was 42nd in the prologue and then finished in the main bunch on stage one, two seconds behind his victorious team-mate Artem Shmidt. Rafferty and the rest of the team rode for Shmidt on stage two but the American rider cracked, losing the race lead.
Rafferty is in his second season with the team and is expected to have a very strong season.
