FRESH from winning the National Road Series, the Abergavenny RC ladies team travelled to Ireland to compete in the Ras na mBan - the premier women's cycling stage race.

Held over five days, the week was the usual mixture of rain, wind and sunny spells. From the word 'Go' it was obvious that the Ras had moved up a gear this year, with DID Electric having Hannah Barnes and Vironoque Fortin from Canada as guest riders.

The Irish National Team were up to full strength with Olivia Dylan and Melanie Spath riding, and Luxembourg fielded their national side alongside a strong French team from Brittany.

Last year's winners the Danish Junior squad, now all seniors, were also in the mix along with a strong German squad.

From the start the week was characterised by aggressive tactics and multiple attacks by all the strong teams, and the pressure was unrelenting throughout the five days.

Stage one (35 miles) was a short road race on wet roads with one climb and multiple crashes.Three Aber RC riders finished in the bunch sprint s/t as the winner Hannah Barnes with the two other RC riders finishing 14 seconds behind.

Day two was a ride into the mountains around the Buren and the Atlantic coast (65 miles). Olivia Dylan and Melanie Spath struck when the field was temporarily isolated on a descent after a crash.The rest of the race split into multiple groups behind. On the coast road with the wind behind, two groups containing Laura Massey, Elizabeth Malins, Natalie Grinczer and Gillian Taylor came together to chase. All to no avail as the race had a hilltop finish and the Irish pair's lead went to over three minutes.

From the chasing group Laura Massey was seventh, Elizabeth Malins, tenth with Natalie Grinczer, 18th and Gillian Taylor, 27th. Abergavenny RC's first year junior Manon Lloyd came in 57th. An excellent result for a 16-year-old and now third junior overall. The team was now in second place.

Stage three was a team time trial and Abergavenny came fourth, with Ireland first, Luxembourg second and DID third.

In the evening the Ras move out to the suburbs of Ennis for a short one hour circuit race which finished with the majority in a bunch sprint won by Hannah Barnes. Aber were still second team oveall and their GC positions were as follows -Laura Massey (7th),Elizabeth Malins (8th), Natalie Grinczer (13th), Gillian Taylor (25th) and Manon Lloyd (54th).

Day four was a figure of eight of 55 miles with two severe climbs and a hilltop finish centered around Lisdoonvarna.

From the start one German and two DID riders attacked with Manon Lloyd attending. The four stayed away for two hours including the first climb, in what was an epic performance by the team's Junior.

With the race again split by the climbs Abergavenny had four riders in the final group and to contest the finish with Grinczer, Massey and Malins s/t as the winner and Gillian Taylor finishing at 58 seconds. Mannon Lloyd finished 48th at four minutes and 55 seconds after an heroic day's work for the team.

The last day (55 miles) was greeted by heavy rain and a vicious cross wind. With one severe climb followed by 30 km straight into the head wind, a group of riders crashed in front of Malins on the descent. Although she remounted she had become detached from the front group and was forced to chase the 40 second gap.

One minute back was the third group containing Grinczer. However the second and third group came to together and managed to reduce the gap to the lead group to one minute and six seconds just before the finish.

As a consequence the team managed to preserve its second place overall with the final GC positions being, Laura Massey (fifth), Elizabeth Mallins (12th), Natalie Grinczer (13th), Gillian Taylor (26th) and Manon Lloyd (44th) and third junior.

Team manager Terry Williamson said, "This was our third vist to the Ras and it was by far the toughest so far. The standard of racing was of the highest level and the Abergavenny riders produced a superb result through excellent team work. They all have much to be proud of."

Pictured left to right are Natalie Grinczer, Laura Massey,Gillian Taylor,Elizabeth Malins and Manon Lloyd.