Ireland’s Lara Gillespie chasing overseas team for 2023

Following on from her super showing in Rás na mBan, Lara Gillespie has named her next target this season and spoken about plans for 2023.

The 21-year-old former European junior track champion is scheduled to line out in the track world championships starting October 12th.

“We have track worlds coming up in October,” Gillespie told The Irish Times following the conclusion of Rás na mBan on Sunday. “So we have a bit of a down week this week and then back to Mallorca and living out there with the track girls. We will be back to team pursuiting at the world championships in Paris.”

Gillespie has had a couple of seasons affected by illness and injury but returned to racing recently and has steadily been building form.

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She won the opening stage of Rás na mBan, taking the first such Irish success since Olivia Dillon in 2014, and then followed that up with another victory on stage four. She was also the best-placed Irish woman overall in the international race, placing 11th overall.

The Wicklow rider said she has additional motivation because of her time away from the sport and wants to step things up for 2023.

“Hopefully I can get on a continental road team,” she said. “I’m trying to get that sorted. And that will help with the track racing as well. We have a lot of track racing at the front of next year, and it’s the start of the Olympic qualifying. So that will kind of take up most of the time until April.”

Meanwhile, talented young Irish climber Archie Ryan will take an important step forward on Tuesday when he guests with the Jumbo-Visma WorldTour team in the Tour of Slovakia.

Ryan has been part of the team’s development squad for the past three seasons but guesting with the WorldTour team is an important show of confidence. The squad won the Tour de France this year with Jonas Vingegaard.

The 20-year-old recently underlined his ability with a super second place on a stage of the Tour de l’Avenir plus fourth overall. The race is regarded as the under 23 version of the Tour de France and has been won by some of the biggest names in the sport.