Lara Gillespie impressing in UCI Track Champions’ League

Imogen Cotter announces new team for 2024

Lara Gillespie of UCD Cycling Club. Photograph: Ben Brady/Inpho
Lara Gillespie of UCD Cycling Club. Photograph: Ben Brady/Inpho

With the latest round of the UCI Track Champions’ League set to take place in Paris this Saturday, a motivated Lara Gillespie is hoping to build on her strong showing last Saturday in Berlin.

The double European under-23 champion sits fifth overall in the series after two rounds, with Gillespie taking fourth in the elimination race and also fourth in the scratch race on Saturday.

Fellow Irishwoman Orla Walsh is competing in the sprint league. She was 12th in the sprint on Saturday, 17th in the keirin, and is now 13th overall.

Round three of five takes place in the Saint-Quentin-En-Yvelines velodrome this Saturday.

READ SOME MORE

Meanwhile, former national champion Imogen Cotter has confirmed where she will be racing in 2024. She had two seasons with the Plantur Pura/Fenix Deceuncinck set-up, but competed far less than anticipated due to a serious crash in early 2022.

She will race with the British squad Hess Cycling Team next season. It is a UCI Continental-ranked squad and 30-year-old Cotter will hope to get back to her best form in those colours.

“I’m so grateful for the opportunity with Hess, and I’m really motivated or the next step in my cycling career with the team,” she said in the official announcement this week. ‘I can’t wait to see what we will achieve together.”

Shane Stokes

Shane Stokes

Shane Stokes is a contributor to The Irish Times writing about cycling