Lara Gillespie, the Irish track international and former national road race and cyclocross champion, has been signed by the UAE Team Emirates organisation for the year ahead in what is a big move for the 21-year-old.
Gillespie, who has mainly competed for UCD Cycling Club and the Irish track team in recent years, is among a number of new riders unveiled by the UAE group this evening as members of what is a new team within the organisation.
For 2023, the remains of the Valcar-Travel & Service team has been taken into the UAE Team ADQ outfit, which has also created the UAE Development Team. In the season ahead, UAE Team ADQ will continue to compete as a women's World Tour team but will now have UAE Development Team running alongside as a feeder squad, and which Gillespie will ride for.
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Some of the Valcar-Travel & Service team from last year have now moved into the UAE structure. Gillespie's competing with UAE Development Team will involve opportunities during the 2023 season to step up to the World Tour squad for some races.
Both the UAE Team ADQ women's World Tour outfit and UAE Development Team are part of the same organisation as the UAE Team Emirates men's World Tour team led by two-time Tour de France winner Tadej Pogačar.
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A total of four riders from last year's Valcar-Travel & Service Continental team will be in the UAE Development Team with Gillespie, namely Emma Redaelli, Carlotta Cipressi, Damiana Piergiovanni and Anastasia Carbonari.
They will be joined by Yulia Biriukova, from Arkéa Pro Cycling, and Linda Zanetti, who rode for the World Tour team last year. Mountain bike rider Gaia Tormena will also be part of the team as well as two riders from the United Arab Emirates, Zahra Hussein and Huda Hussein.
Ireland's Gillespie returned to form this year after having a difficult time over a period of around 12 months due to illness and injury. However, her health had clearly improved by mid 2022, when she resumed racing for the Irish track team.
She also won the final round of the Cycling Ireland National Road Series in Banbridge in August; her first road race since she won the national road race championships in 2020. After her win in Banbridge, she went into Rás na mBan on the Irish team and won two stages. She was the first Irish rider to win a stage on the race since former national champion Olivia Dillon back in 2014.
Gillespie, from Co Wicklow, is already a decorated track rider, winning medals at the Worlds and Europeans as a junior and U23 rider. She remains part of the Irish track team, including the team pursuit line-up about to start its Olympic qualification campaign at next month's European Championships in Switzerland.
More to come.
