Lara Gillespie set the first split alight and never let the advantage slip. On a warm Thursday evening in Swinford, County Mayo, the Irishwoman covered the 30.7km course of the 2026 Irish Road Championships time trial in 38:38, an average of 47.6 km/h, to take the elite national title at the first attempt. Track world champion Lara Gillespie rocketed through all three time splits and landed a decisive victory in the elite women's time trial at the Irish Road Championships. The 25-year-old averaged 47.6 kph in her victory on the 30.7km course across County Mayo, finishing in 38:38.
The race was decided against the clock, not a rival. A total of 14 elite women lined up at 19:15 local time for the ITT in County Mayo. The out-and-back affair included a climb on the 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 handled the drag and the exposed roads without hesitation. Linda Kelly, another track rider with 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 of Lidl-Trek one second faster than Mia Griffin, last year's road race champion.
The heat was a factor, and Gillespie was ready for it. She 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.
A title added to a broadening record
This was new ground rather than an obvious extension of her strengths. She became Ireland's Elite national time trial champion for the first time in her career. The result sits alongside her elite road race titles of 2020 and 2023, and beside the achievement that reshaped her standing in the sport. Her world title came in the Elimination race in 2025, when she became the first Irish woman to become a world champion on the track.
By her own account, the win owed something to a hard spring in the mountains and the endurance it left in her legs.
I'm not usually a time trial specialist, but today I had this opportunity and I tried to have fun and push myself a bit. It was an unusually hot day around here, but I'd just come off two months of hard work and heat at the Giro d'Italia, so I was ready.
Gillespie said afterwards that the ride gave her confidence for the road race to follow. For a rider who arrived without a time trial on her record, the discipline now belongs to her too.
