Track world champion Lara Gillespie (UAE Team ADQ) rocketed through all three time splits and landed a decisive victory in the elite women's time trial at the Irish Road Championships on Thursday evening.
The 25-year-old averaged 47.6 kph in her victory on the 30.7km course across County Mayo, finishing in 38:38. Linda Kelly, another track star who has world titles and a Paralympic gold as a tandem pilot, repeated with the silver medal, 1 minute and 31 seconds back.
The battle for the final medal played out just six seconds behind Kelly, with Marine Lenehan (Lidl-Trek) one second faster than Mia Griffin (Picnic-PostNL), last year's road race champion. Dublin native Lenehan earned her second career bronze at the Irish championships, having gone third in the road race last year.
A total of 14 elite women lined up Thursday evening at 19:15 local time for the 30km ITT in County Mayo. The out-and-back affair included a climb on Charlestown Bypass that took riders to the south of Carracastle, rising 2% across 6.4km, then a loop through the centre of Carracastle to take on more rolling terrain in the final 7.7km back toward Swinford.
Gillespie came into the Irish Road Nationals in solid form, having won Samyn Ladies in March and taking a pair of runner-up finishes in stage races, the UAE Tour Women and the Giro d'Italia Women. She had never competed in the time trial at nationals before, having won Irish titles in the road race three times, once as a junior and twice as an elite.
Her world title came in the Elimination race in 2025, and she became the first Irish woman to become a world champion on the track.
Results
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