Lara Gillespie has said she was happy with a breakthrough season and excited that she was able to race, specifically sprint, against riders she had looked up to for years and was "making it hard for them".
Having moved up to a World Tour team on the road this year, made her Olympic debut and also won her first medal at an elite UCI World Track Championships, it is been a season of huge progression for the Wicklow rider.
However, winning bronze at the Worlds was "like coming 4th because I just want to win". Gillespie has also outlined the one-day classics she intends to target, over a race like the Tour de France, though she felt she could evolve in time to become a general classification rider as she was still "surprising" her coaches with her performances.
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At the recent World Track Championships in Denmark she was happy to win points race bronze, but was also disappointed because she felt she could have claimed gold. That 3rd place also followed on from being 4th three times at the track Europeans during the summer.
"For me, coming 3rd is kinda like coming 4th because I just want to win," she told Off The Ball. "So it is that kinda… you always want to be better. But I can still appreciate this is where I want to be.
"I'm fighting for a medal with the people I'm looking up to, and I have looked up to over the last few years. And I'm sprinting against them and it's not easy for them, I'm making it hard. So that bit is really satisfying."
However, she felt she won her bronze medal at the worlds by "attacking and being brave", meaning she felt she "actually won" a bronze - rather than losing gold or silver - by taking risks and reaping the reward though "you always want more".
Asked by broadcaster Ger Gilroy if she felt it had been a huge breakthrough year - stepping up to top tier pro road racing, winning the Worlds medal and getting to the Olympics - Gillespie agreed, especially after some tough years.
"I think it's true to say it's a break-out year but I've just been in a constant steady progression because I came from having injury and illness for a few years, so you're basically at the bottom. So you can't just keep developing, keep getting better. So I'm excited and hope that trajectory keeps going that way.
"For me, the Tour de France wouldn't be what I'd be aiming for because I'm not that type or rider, but eventually maybe I could be. But there are other races at that same level that I'd be targeting; one-day classics like Strade Bianche or Paris-Roubaix, those kind of races would be more suited to me."
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Gillespie said she was "more of a sprinter and also a track rider" and was "not a climber who can climb for three hours uphill". However, there were also sprint stages on the Tour, which sprinters could "win and target and I can still help the GC rider".
"But eventually I could develop to be a GC rider," she said. "For example, the world champion right now (Lotte Kopecky), she was more of a sprinter, a puncheur type rider, like I am right now. And she's developed as she got older, more into a GC rider."
Gillespie also said a rider like Bradley Wiggins had been a track rider initially, before also developing as a general classification rider - winning the 2012 Tour de France. Furthermore, women generally continued to develop in cycling well into their 30s, specifically in terms of aerobic capacity, while their body fat also tended to reduce.
Her future would depend on the type of races, and goals, she decided to target, though added she would continue to ride track, which was "a big goal" for her.
"I can do that higher power and I really enjoy the adrenaline that the track brings; the opportunities to go to World Championships, Europeans, and to race at the highest level more often than you can do on the road," she said.
However, she also said there was "lots more to discover" about herself as she had continue to surprise her coaches, including winning a stage of Giro Mediterraneo Rosa (2.2) by over three minutes with a long-range solo breakaway.
For next year, she wanted to undertake a long period of racing on the road with her World Tour team - UAE ADQ - to learn how to race the major events, towards performing in them in the future. The track Europeans were also on her radar in the New Year, when she wanted to aim to win medals.
Gillespie added having a velodrome in Dublin - which has been promised for many years - would not have a big impact on her career - as she needed to train in a warmer climate - but would "help the whole next generation".
"For us, we do have to train internationally anyway, because we have to go to Mallorca or we have to go to somewhere in Spain to train in the sun anyway."
Training for five hours a day was "way harder" in the Irish climate, often leading to illness and often feeling like training for 10 hours.
But for winter training, group training and bringing along younger riders, the velodrome would "pay off", probably in 10 riders, as the number of track riders increased and competition for spots became more intense.
