Mia Griffin becomes third Irish rider to join British Continental team

Mia Griffin, who rode for Israel Premier Tech Roland last year, has become the third Irish rider to sign for a new UCI Continental team for the international road race season ahead.

The Kilkenny woman, a double medalist on the track at the Europeans – in team pursuit and individual pursuit – goes into this year of competition after some fine performances towards the end of 2023.

She won two stages at Rás na mBan, gold at the National Criterium Championships and placed 3rd at Tour of Guangxi (1.WWT); the first podium finish by an Irish woman in a World Tour event.

Griffin is currently facing into another track Europeans campaign, getting underway in the Netherlands tomorrow, where the team pursuit line-up she is part of should take another step towards Olympic qualification.

And while qualifying for the Games will be her main focus until the end of April, she will also ride on the road this year with DAS-Hutchinson-Brother UK.

Griffin joins her team mate from last year, Alice Sharpe, in the British outfit, along with fellow international rider Caoimhe O’Brien. The team has been created by the recent merger of the DAS Handsling and Hutchinson-Brother UK teams.

“Our ambition for 2024 is to target a more European-centric race program. To that end, we have applied for multiple races across Europe and beyond,” the merged team said in a statement.

“Race confirmations are now starting to return, which should make for an exciting race programme in 2024.

“With the merging of the two teams, with additional staff and vehicles, we are now better-placed to run a double programme, where necessary, to ensure we remain a competitive team across the domestic UK races.

“The merger of the teams is a great opportunity to expand the race calendar for the riders and enable them to ride both in the UK and abroad, targeting races better-suited to their strengths, with more resources and a bigger support team

“With all of this we can provide the riders with high quality support and a competitive level of racing that will be of significant benefit to the their development and progression.”