The Irish Times/Sport Ireland Sportswoman Award for October: Lara Gillespie (Cycling)
Being tough on yourself is, no doubt, a basic requirement for athletes competing at the elite level of sport, just so they keep pushing to squeeze every last drop of potential out of themselves. Lara Gillespie can take it to whole new heights, though.
You note how emotional she appeared to be after winning bronze at the Track World Championships in Denmark last month. So you ask if that was because she was thinking back to the dark days when even being able to cycle again seemed improbable, never mind winning world medals.
“No. My only emotion that day was annoyance that I didn’t win. I definitely wasn’t thinking, ‘oh, that was amazing’.”
Ah, Lara.
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She laughs. “I am hard on myself, yeah, but I think every athlete does have a bit of that in them. And I think that’s how you keep getting better.”
It’s a fair indication of how much the 23-year-old has gone through the last few years that she describes breaking her shoulder a couple of weeks out from the Olympics as “a bit unfortunate”. For most, it would have been a calamity, for Gillespie it was just another hiccup on her journey.
After the year she’s enjoyed, she probably deserves to be spared yet more questions about all her health and injury battles, but they put in context the measure of her achievements through 2024, on both the road and track, and demonstrate just how much of the warrior there is about this Wicklow native.
The gist: A debilitating gynaecological condition that eventually needed surgery, glandular fever, a torn hamstring, a dislocated collarbone, that broken shoulder, sundry injuries from crashes, and, just to cap it all, Covid as she was shaping up for her Olympic debut.
So, after being annoyed with herself in Denmark for finishing just four points behind gold medallist Julie Leth and only one behind the superstar that is Lotte Kopecky, she reflected on her path to that podium and gave herself a break. A brief one, any way.
“Yeah, I do feel proud about getting through all the hard days, and I’m endlessly grateful to the people who helped me along the way. When I was sick back in 2020 and 2021, I couldn’t even get out of bed, that’s how mentally draining it was. Sport is my life, it’s what makes me feel good, so when I’m not able to do it, it’s really, really hard on my brain, my nervous system, my whole body.
“And there was definitely a period when I really didn’t think I’d ever be racing again, so there’s not one day that goes by when I’m not grateful to be back on the bike. Everyone experiences hard times, though, but once things start going good again, you kind of forget about them. But yeah, I really overcame a lot of obstacles, so 2024 was quite a big step considering I’ve only been healthy for a year or two.”
She was, she says, able to put the “disruptions” to her career “to bed” last year, but you’d need a supplement to detail the highlights of 2024 — among them: winning two stages plus the general classification in the Giro Mediterraneo Rosa in April, sprinting to victory in the Antwerp Port Epic race in May, being part of the first Irish team pursuit squad to qualify for the Olympic Games, smashing the national record en route to a ninth place finish, and being given a contract by UAE Team ADQ which saw her step up to WorldTour level in June. And then there was Denmark.
“It was a dynamic year, but I absolutely loved every moment of it. I wasn’t just participating, I was actually able to compete at the highest level and I felt like I learned so much. My bronze in Denmark was definitely my big peak of the year, it was incredible to be in the top three in the world.
“But I was so proud to be part of that Olympic team too, the four of us traipsed around the world trying to qualify, and for us to achieve that, when we can’t even train at home, was something special.” That velodrome in Abbotstown can’t be built quickly enough.
Needless to say, she was hard on herself after her fifth, 10th and 11th placings in her various Olympic events, but she was hardly off the bike when she had Los Angeles 2028 on her mind. Before then, though, she has a jammed schedule, starting with the UCI Track Champions League — “basically like the Diamond League in athletics” — which gets under way on November 23rd. This is why she’s in Spain this week doing some personal training, rather than being back home in Wicklow relaxing after a hectic year. Cycling is unrelenting.
But after a hugely successful junior career, at European and World levels, Gillespie is savouring the chance that has finally come to realise her potential in the senior ranks, her signing with ADQ opening up a whole new world.
“That was massive for me, you can’t get any higher than that. I’m so excited to be a part of it because every single rider on the team is a champion in their own right. It’s a whole new chapter of discovering what suits me [and] what type of rider I am. I’m learning a lot about myself and other people are learning maybe not to put me in a box.
“A lot of times this year I surprised myself, and my coaches too. They only thought I was a sprinter or a track rider, and then I would do a big 40km solo breakaway and they’re like, ‘woah, where did that come from?’
“So yeah, I’m learning about myself, what I can be. And I always think I can be the best. That’s just my nature. Every athlete should go into every race thinking they can win — otherwise, what’s the point? Maybe that’s why I’m so hard on myself because I know that’s where I can be: winning.”
A German connection is helping. Not least in transporting her bikes and all her worldly possessions when she’s travelling the circuit. “Yeah, 99.9 per cent of the time I’m living out of a suitcase, I don’t have a home base, I’m moving from training camp to race, training camp to race, to race, to race, it’s life on the road. And I love it.
“My boyfriend, Luca Spiegel, is German, he’s an elite cyclist too, and dating a cyclist works out really well because you’re not feeling bad for being away the whole time — he understands. We both got to experience the Olympics and the Worlds together, so that was really special. And it also helps because the German team transported some of my bikes and stuff to the Worlds so, logistically, that helped a lot.”
No regrets about giving up ballet, Irish dancing, football, hockey, athletics and swimming? “Ha, no. But I do miss them sometimes, I miss that proper team environment. Although I got those feelings back in Abu Dhabi a couple [of] weeks ago with ADQ, it was really cool because you could feel a team click.
“I still do a little bit of dancing, it makes me feel good, and I have a little jog here and there. I’ll go back to them someday, maybe when I’m a mom, but for now it’s cycling.”
Previous monthly winners — December: Fionnuala McCormack (Athletics); January: Lucy Mulhall (Rugby); February: Mona McSharry (Swimming); March: Rachael Blackmore (Horse racing); April: Róisín Ní Riain (Swimming); May: Rhasidat Adeleke (Athletics); June: Ciara Mageean (Athletics); July: Kellie Harrington (Boxing); August: Louise Ní Mhuircheartaigh (Gaelic football); September: Katie-George Dunlevy and Linda Kelly (Paracycling).
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