Lara Gillespie has said she was happy with how she felt in the scratch race at the UCI World Track Championships in Paris last night. The Co Wicklow rider, who is coming back to form after a prolonged period of injury and illness, said her condition in the race was good but added she got squeezed for position in the finale.
The 10km event was won by Italy's Martina Fidanza, who defended her world title with a blistering surge on the final that that pulled her well clear of the rest of the bunch in the sprint. Maike van der Duine (Netherlands) took silver and Jessica Roberts (Great Britain) won bronze.
Gillespie, who had earlier in the day ridden the team pursuit qualifiers, finished 17th in the 24-rider field and said lose position had cost her in the finale.
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“It was going good until the last five laps, I was in a good position, and I got into a good place. But I got into a pinch point where I had to backpedal to get back around. I probably should have tried to squeeze into that gap but it was quite dangerous," she said.
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“I did my best and I put out really good power. I gave it everything and I’m looking forward to building on this and getting more race experience at this level. I’m happy I got this opportunity.”
Earlier in the day, the Irish team pursuit women finished 9th in qualifying and with only eight teams going forward to the next round, they went out of the competition. They were just outside their national record and also rode faster than in any of their previous three attempts at Worlds qualifying.
“I think we’re both pleased and disappointed," said team member Kay. "We thought we were capable of being in the top eight, we would have liked to have qualified and got a second ride but that’s the fastest we’ve ever qualified. We've taken a step forward so it’s bittersweet.
“Olympic qualifying is the top ten now so we’re within that and we definitely know there’s things we can change to take that step forward. We’re amongst it (the top ten in the world) and there’s a few on front of us that aren’t too far away, we can change some things and hopefully take more steps forward.”
