One in 4 Britons imagine they may qualify for Los Angeles 2028 in the event that they began coaching right away – so revealed a YouGov survey in August 2024. That’s lots of deluded folks, you may assume. However Irishwoman Megan Armitage has proved it’s attainable, going from newbie to Olympian in simply three years.
Again in 2021, Armitage and her associate, the Australian professional rider Cyrus Monk, have been watching the Tokyo Olympic ladies’s highway race on TV when Monk mentioned: “That might be you in Paris.” A disbelieving Armitage retorted, “Get away!” However three years later, on 4 August 2024, the Irishwoman was on the beginning line in Paris, alongside Lotte Kopecky and Marianne Vos.
Armitage, now 28, had not got down to turn into a professional bike racer. In her early 20s, her sights have been set on authorized relatively than sporting observe. “I didn’t develop up with biking,” she says. “I studied regulation and French regulation, and hated each minute. The one wonderful thing about it was that I did my Erasmus in Toulouse [in France], so I might go path working. Frustratingly I bought injured, so my buddy steered we go on a bikepacking journey.”
Each Thursday, after class, Armitage and her buddy set out on battered rental mountain bikes for lengthy weekends within the Pyrenees – and regularly she morphed from runner into bike owner. “We’d keep in dingy Airbnbs or take a tent, which typically collapsed in a single day. It was a lot enjoyable, I used to be hooked.”
Keep within the Pyrenees
At this level, Armitage wasn’t pondering of turning into an expert bike racer, however wished biking in her life. “I purchased a highway bike, and cherished getting out on it. Then when Covid hit, I initially thought I might simply keep within the Pyrenees and keep on biking, assuming it will blow over after a few weeks.” When the size of the outbreak turned clear, the coed hurried again to her household dwelling in County Offaly, Eire. There, she continued to cycle within the close by Slieve Bloom hills.
It was whereas out on a lockdown coaching experience that she met professional bike owner and coach Monk. Covid guidelines had prevented the Australian from returning to his base in Belgium. Noting Armitage’s efficiency within the hills, Monk inspired her to attempt racing. After a number of rides collectively, he turned her coach, and later her fiancé. As soon as restrictions have been lifted, Armitage began racing regionally. “I loved it a lot, and went to each single race I might,” she says.
Given her early success and ending eighth within the Irish Nationwide Street Race Championship in October 2020, her vocation turned clear. “As soon as I’d completed my closing 12 months exams [in 2021], I didn’t even go to my commencement, I simply went Images: straight to Belgium and did each single kermesse race I might get into.” She was off to the races, fairly actually. “Belgium was a very totally different world. In Eire I’d been racing towards 20 women, whereas right here I used to be up towards 100 or 140 women.”
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Ignorance is invincible
At EF-Oatly-Cannondale Armitage is surrounded by prime riders
(Picture credit score: Getty Photographs)
Wanting again, Armitage feels that her naivety labored to her benefit. “I’d rock up at these kermesses and didn’t know who anybody was. Lucinda Model and all these unbelievable cyclists could be there, however I’d assume, ‘I can do that.’ Having that form of delusional optimism, pondering I used to be invincible, actually served me.
“I keep in mind one race the place it was completely lashing down with rain, and the entire course was flooded,” she says. Her Irish team-mate Imogen Cotter instructed her that this kermesse was so exhausting that she had by no means completed it.
“This fired me up much more and made me decided to complete,” says Armitage. “I can’t keep in mind my end result, however I used to be so joyful once I completed.”
Not even the rain, chaos and crashes of hard-fought Belgian races might blunt Armitage’s newfound ardour for the game. “There have been lots of totally different skills, and a few very aggressive women,” she says. “I bought caught up in so many crashes. I’d come down and reduce open my knee. It could heal after which I’d be in one other crash – I consistently had scarred knees.”
As but, Armitage didn’t have an expert contract and was self-funding her racing, struggling to make ends meet. She and Monk lived in a bedsit in Belgium, and it was that summer time, whereas watching the Tokyo Olympics collectively, that Monk mentioned she might qualify for the subsequent Video games. Armitage wrote a whole bunch of emails to Irish corporations, searching for sponsorship. Ultimately she obtained a constructive response: Philip Nolan, the cycling-mad chairman of regulation agency Mason Hayes and Curran agreed to again her.
“I used to be ecstatic!” Armitage remembers.
Household backing
Armitage was caught up in a crash on the Montmartre loop
(Picture credit score: Ed Sykes/SWpix.com)
All through these difficult occasions, the younger Irishwoman had unwavering ethical assist from her household, even when they have been nervous about her plan. “My mum and pop assume I’m half-cracked!” she laughs. “My sister caught with the set methods: went to college, did regulation and bought a job, whereas I used to be like, ‘No I’m doing this.’” Her dad and mom’ response: “So long as you’re secure and in a position to present for your self, we again you 100%.”
What ought to have been Armitage’s huge break got here in late 2022 when she was supplied a contract with B&B Resorts, to race alongside Audrey Cordon-Ragot and Chloe Hosking. Sadly the group folded and Armitage, in Australia on the time, spent all evening making telephone calls to Europe searching for a alternative.
Thankfully, Arkéa employed Armitage for 2023, and she or he didn’t disappoint, profitable the Vuelta Extremadura stage race in March, adopted by fourth on the GP Féminin de Chambéry in April. For 2024 she signed a three-year contract with EF-Oatly-Cannondale. “It’s an unbelievable group by way of the assist we get,” Armitage says. “It’s stuffed with stars: Alison Jackson and Kristen Faulkner are actually skilled.”
Now primarily based in Good, Armitage and Monk prepare on the climbs of the encompassing Alpes-Maritimes. There have been bumps within the highway, and Armitage has had her share of accidents, certainly one of which dominated her out of the 2023 Tour de France Femmes. The dream got here true final 12 months when Armitage was chosen to symbolize Eire within the highway race on the Paris 2024 Olympics. “Everybody goals in regards to the Olympics as a child, however I by no means thought it will occur to me,” she says. “So once we have been on the beginning line with the Eiffel Tower in entrance of us and all of the crowds, I used to be wanting round pondering, ‘Rattling, that is fairly cool.’ Going up Montmartre was unbelievable, and taking in these crowds was insane.”
Though her race didn’t go to plan – she was caught behind a crash firstly of the Montmartre loop – the girl from Shinrone nonetheless relished her day on the streets of Paris. “Although it was irritating, I attempt to remind myself of the Megan who began out in Belgium with no cash, simply attempting to make it,” she displays. “I really feel so fortunate to have had that unbelievable expertise.”
Armitage’s first goal for 2025 was to get a end result within the Tour Down Below. In the future, a Grand Tour debut could also be on the playing cards. As she now is aware of for certain, it pays to dream huge.