Irish champion Mia Griffin will be the first Irish woman to compete at the Tour de France
IRISH CHAMPION RACER Mia Griffin has been confirmed to make her debut at the 2025 Tour de France.
Griffin, who was crowned the women's elite national road race champion
last month,
has been announced for the event as part of the Roland cycling team. No Irish woman has competed at the Tour de France before. Megan Armitage was selected in 2023 by the Arkéa team but she was forced to withdraw due to a head injury
while training.
Advertisement
Kilkenny rider Griffin has been selected on the Roland team along with Morgane Coston, Tamara Dronova, Elena Pirrone, Kaja Rysz, Petra Stiasny and Sylvie Swinkels.
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Roland Le Dévoluy Cycling Team (@rolandcyclingteam)
Written by Sinead Farrell and originally published on The 42 whose award-winning team produces original content that you won't find anywhere else: on GAA, League of Ireland, women's sport and boxing, as well as our game-changing rugby coverage, all with an Irish eye. Subscribe
here
.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The 42
43 minutes ago
- The 42
Milan wins crash-marred sprint as Tour approaches Alpine end game
ITALY'S JONATHAN MILAN escaped a spectacular pile-up of flying bikes and bodies to win stage 17 of the Tour de France in lashing rain on Wednesday, extending his lead in the sprint points race. Overall leader Tadej Pogacar, his closest rival Jonas Vingegaard (4:15 behind), and Ireland's Ben Healy — who remains ninth in the general classification — finished safely despite a mass fall 800m from the finish line at Valence at the foot of the Alps. On the rain-slick roads at Valence once one rider had fallen his interminable slide across the tarmac sent riders flying like skittles leaving only 10 to contest the sprint. Advertisement This was a second stage win for Milan, who won Italy's first stage since 2019 on stage eight. The 24-year-old Lidl Trek rider now has 312 points, and is in a powerful position to win the battle for the green jersey in Paris as Pogacar is second at 240 with only two possible sprints left at 50pts each. - Alpine peaks loom large - As the remaining 164 riders embarked from the sleepy Provence village of Bollene, the collective will of the peloton made for a slow approach of the Alps. Billed as a sprinters stage on an unusually mild (22C) day the riders were also spared the 50kph winds that had been forecast. But the rain deprived the stage of a full bunch sprint due to the horrid fall. Attention now turns to three massive climbs culminating with the ascent to the 2304m altitude Col de la Loze on stage 18 will sort the wheat from the chaff on Thursday's Queen stage. – © AFP 2025
Irish Independent
an hour ago
- Irish Independent
Tom Court on his Lions memories, making a return in red and how much he misses rugby and Ireland
Former Ulster and Ireland prop earned an unlikely call-up 12 years ago – it's only now that he can fully appreciate how much it actually means to him It seems short-sighted to reduce Tom Court's 44 years to just one engaging yarn when so many colourful tales have shaped his journey to this point. Like how his maternal Irish bloodline ended up on the other side of the world in the first place. How his Catholic grandfather, Patrick Carey, from Limerick, fought for the British Navy in World War II before moving to England with his wife from Clare, working in a brewery in Burton-on-Trent only to then up sticks once more to become a sugar cane cutter in Australia.
Irish Examiner
2 hours ago
- Irish Examiner
Healy stays ninth as Milan wins second stage
Jonathan Milan won a rain-soaked sprint finish in Valence to take his second stage win in this year's Tour de France, after a treacherous finish from which race leader Tadej Pogacar, and nearest rival Jonas Vingegaard, both emerged unscathed. Ireland's Ben Healy remains ninth overall, 17:52 down on Pogacar, after finishing 37th on the stage. In what was probably the final stage of the 2025 Tour suited to the sprinters, others were not so fortunate after a downpour made the final kilometres through surburban Valence horribly greasy. When the inevitable touch of wheels came it took down half a dozen riders, including stage three winner Tim Merlier, and Biniam Girmay, winner of the points classification in 2024, who somersaulted down the wet road into the barriers. As Milan celebrated his stage win, a predictable backlash was gathering pace against race leader Pogacar with just four days of racing to come, as Jean-René Bernaudeau, manager of the Total Energies team, accused the Slovenian's UAE Team Emirates XRG squad of arrogance. 'They're arrogant towards those who just want to live simply alongside them,' the Frenchman said of Pogacar's team. 'I expect their team manager to make that point to them.' Pogacar was dismissive of the Frenchman's comments. 'Arrogance is something, trying to win the Tour de France is another thing. I think a lot riders would see us as arrogant because we want to control every single kilometre of this race. We don't try to be arrogant, we just try to make our race as easy as possible. I think – this will sound super arrogant – but some guys can stay quiet.' On a day in which pro-Palestinian activists waved flags and unfurled banners in Dieulefit as the Tour peloton passed through, Pogacar was also questioned about his feelings on human rights in the UAE. 'I ride for UAE Team Emirates and if you go there, you'll see how the sport is growing,' Pogacar said. 'Kids love us, the locals love us when we ride with them. The sport is growing in the UAE, which I guess is why they have the team, to promote a healthy lifestyle.' The roadside protest in Dieulefit saw houses draped with Palestinian flags and there were reports of protesters holding up 'Starving is Killing' banners as the riders passed through. The town was honoured for sheltering Jewish people during the second world war. Last Wednesday a protester ran onto the finish line in Toulouse, wearing a T-shirt stating 'Israel out of the Tour.' He was tackled by Tour staff and is scheduled to stand trial for endangering the riders. After that incident, the Israel-Premier Tech team said that it 'respects everyone's right to free speech which includes the right to protest.' If Pogacar remains in a league of his own, with Vingegaard clinging to his coat tails, the battle for the final podium spot is likely to become intense in the next 48 hours, with Scotland's Oscar Onley currently the meat in a Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe sandwich. The German team's Tour debutant Florian Lipowitz is currently securely placed third overall, with Onley two minutes behind. But his teammate, Primoz Roglic, the most insouciant Grand Tour champion in the race, has now crept into the top five. Not everyone has been thrilled to see Roglic's re-emergence over the past few stages. 'Won't be buying Red Bulls anymore,' Onley said on Strava, after the Slovenian moved to 38 seconds behind him, following the Mont Ventoux finish. 'Not funding those attacks.' Meanwhile, volatile weather is predicted for the two remaining mountain stages, Thursday's high altitude finish on the Col de la Loze, at 2,304 metres and Friday's climb to the ski station at La Plagne, topping out at 2,o52 metres. As rain fell heavily on Valence and the Rhone valley, Francois Lemarchand, of race organisers ASO, said that change was in the air. 'A few days of cooler weather are coming and we could see a swing of 20 degrees. It will go from very hot to very cold, from one day to the next.' Guardian
