Lara Gillespie (UAE Team ADQ) is back in action tomorrow at the Tour of Britain following a few weeks away from competition since her first Grand Tour appearance at La Vuelta. Aoife O’Brien (DAS-Hutchinson), the Irish road and track international, will also be making her debut in the race.
With four stages to come, starting tomorrow in Dalby Forest, North Yorkshire, Gillespie is a real contender for a stage victory considering the season she has had to date, gathering up results and generally being to the fore in major races.
She told stickybottle during the Vuelta she was riding the race in the middle of a training block, but she still took a best result of 4th place on the penultimate stage. She would have gone much closer to victory – on the stage to Baltanás won by Marianne Vos (Visma Lease a Bike) – with more lead-out support.
Though Tour of Britain is a World Tour race, that is the level where Gillespie has really found her legs this year as she has completed her first extended block of European pro road racing as her track commitments have reduced in post-Olympic year.
All four stages can suit her in Britain this week, where rolly or flat terrain will be the order of the day. The only exception is perhaps stage 3 – some 143.8km starting and finishing in Kelso. It features 1,700 metres of climbing, including the 2.5km ascent of Dingleton, at six per cent, which is created 24km from the finish.
However, though that is the hilliest day by far, and the general classification riders and teams are likely to seize on it, Gillespie will not fear that terrain. And the fact the course suits her each day means she can aim for both a stage win and a general classification result.
The opening stage tomorrow, Thursday, is a short 81.5km from Dalby Forest to Redcar with two cat 2 climbs in the first half of the stage, and a total of 900m of elevation gain.
Friday’s stage 2 takes the riders 114.3km from Hartlepool to Saltburn-by-the-Sea, with two cat 1 climbs in the final 30km. They are short – at just 600m – but they have an average gradient of almost 9 per cent. As they come within 20km of each other – the second crested just 13km from the finish – they could be a springboard for attacks
There follows the Kelso stage on Saturday – which will likely decide the general classification – before the final day of the race on Sunday, which is an 82km flat circuit race in Glasgow.
Gillespie goes into the race having really established herself in the pro peloton since the start of the season. The 24-year-old Wicklow rider opened her 2025 campaign on the road with a very aggressive performance at UAE Tour.
She was especially strong on stage 2 when she was in the small breakaway the day the crosswinds ripped apart the field. She was also crowned European elimination race champion in Zolder, Belgium, in February, in her first assignment after UAE Tour.
Since then, Gillespie has taken podium results in Fenix Omloop van het Hageland (1.1), Le Samyn des Dames (1.1) and Danilith Nokere Koerse WE (1.Pro). She has also taken 5th and 6th in one-day World Tour races Classic Brugge-De Panne WE (1.WWT) and Gent-Wevelgem In Flanders Fields WE (1.WWT) as well as finishing top 20 at Paris-Roubaix (1.WWT).
The sprints will be competitive at Tour of Britain, with lots of top riders in action including; Lorena Wiebes (Team SD Worx-Protime), Ally Wollaston (FDJ-SUEZ), Chiara Consonni (Canyon-Sram-zondacrypto), Linda Zanetti (Uno-X Mobility), Elisa Balsamo, Anna Henderson (both Lidl-Trek), Cath Ferguson (Movistar), Letizia Paternoster (Liv AlUla Jayco) and Charlotte Kool (Team Picnic PostNL).
O’Brien, who is combining her track and road racing with university studies, can also make her mark at the Tour of Britain before the race comes to an end on Sunday, especially in the breakaways. She has gotten a start in both Amstel Gold Race and the Tour of Flanders this year, going on the attack in Flanders and spending 110km up the road.
The team she is riding for is a UCI Continental squad registered in Britain and it will be looking to get into the thick of the racing over the next four days. We can expect to see O’Brien trying to get into the breakaways and, hopefully, making it into one that could go to the finish.
