It was a tough day of racing for Maeve Gallagher, Lara Gillespie and Lucy O’Donnell at the Junior Women’s UCI Road World Championships in Yorkshire.
All three riders were involved in crashes which ultimately ended their hopes of a medal. Maeve and Lara rounded the final corner in the top 10 but a crash inside 500m to go meant they finished 25th and 39th respectively. Lucy put in a brave performance to finish 86th after being brought down at the 40 kilometre mark, an incident which Maeve was also involved in.
Commenting at the finish line Lucy said:
“It was my first Road World Championships and I was really excited but so nervous I have to say.
“It was Okay at the start, it was a bit dodgy because it would be stopping and going, stopping and going but then it settled down a bit later on in the race. But then all of a sudden there was just breaking and they when down in front of me and I couldn’t do anything about it. There was a problem with my bike so I got the spare bike and managed to finish.”
“It was an amazing experience, I was really looking forward to it and I’m just so happy to have finished.”
“It was so cool coming into the town, I just wish I could be further up but hopefully next year.”
