Lara Gillespie has taken her second national championship title in three days as she takes this afternoon’s Elite Women’s Road Race in Co. Mayo.
Conditions were drastically different from her TT win last Thursday, as riders had to battle wind and rain for the duration. Gillespie won her third Elite Road Race National title in a tough uphill sprint ahead of Liv Alula Jayco rider Emma Jeffers in second and Picnic PostNL rider, and 2025 champion, Mia Griffin. Jeffers second place was enough to see her retain her U23 National Title.
The finish was always going to be a hotly contested affair, and Gillespie said afterwards: “Marine [Lenihan] attacked initially and we caught her, and then were all sort of looking at each other and ended up almost in a standing start before we got going for the line. I know how strong Mia is from racing and training with her on the track and I’ve seen how strong Emma is sprinting on the road, so I just had to hope for the best.”
She added; “I’m really excited to be able to wear the national champions jersey in the peleton, it really means a lot to be able to wear that for the next year.”
The Junior Men were on the road first today. Rolling out of Cong Community Centre at 9.30am and getting racing 7 minutes later, Spellman Dublin Port rider Curtis McKee attacked from KM0, but was brought back a few kilometres later. A breakaway of three came to the uphill sprint after the 111km, and it was Freddie Winkley that took the top spot, followed by James Armstrong in second and Hugh Óg Mulhearne in third.
Winkley, still just 16 years of age, said afterwards of his first national title; “it was a bit stop start for a while there - one got away; pulled back, four got away; pulled back. It went on like that for most of the race. It came to a sprint and I was thinking “I’m in bother here” to be honest. I’ve not been sprinting well lately, but when one of them launched I just went for it and it worked out.”
