Irish riders Lara Gillespie and JB Murphy may have hit some serious headwinds in their careers over the last year but both signaled they are back in form with great performances in Portugal at the weekend; Gillespie scoring two UCI-ranked victories and Murphy racing to a podium finish.
Mia Griffin, who is just days away from starting her World Tour career on the road, was Gillespie's Madison partner as the duo rode to victory, ensuring the trip to Anadia was well worthwhile for the Irish.
Murphy (23), who was riding the omnium in his Irish champion's kit at Troféu Internacional de Pista, took 2nd place in the four-event race. Fellow Irish rider, Stefan Caulfield Dreier rode the race for his team, Spellman Dublin Port, and placed 19th.
Runner-up Murphy scored 130 points, with Portugal's João Matias - a silver medalist in the elimination race at the Europeans last year - winning the event on 165 points. Daniel Dias, a 21-year-old and three-time national title winner in Portugal, was 3rd, just one point behind Ireland's Murphy.
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The Kildare rider had been selected for the European Track Championships and for the Commonwealth Games in the summer but was ruled out of both when he crashed while road racing in France in late July. He fractured five vertabrae in that crash, during Grand Prix de la ville de Pérenchies (1.2) while racing for EvoPro Racing, which halted his plans.
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Murphy won medals on the track as a junior at the Europeans and Worlds and claimed a bronze medal last year in the scratch race. His result at the weekend was a positive way to the end of the year having been out of competition for give months during to that accident in France.
In the women's omnium, Gillespie took victory, in what was a UCI C2-ranked meeting, with her compatriot Griffin finishing in 5th place. Gillespie ended the four-race event with 146 points, some 12 points ahead of runner-up Maria Martins (Portugal), with Eukene Larrarte Arteaga (Spain) placing 3rd.
While Gillespie has won medals at the junior track Worlds and Europeans, and at the track Europeans as an U23 rider, she had a difficult 12 months until this summer, when she began to put behind her a bout of illness and injury.
The fact she got the better of Martins - and repeatedly beat her in the sprints during the points race - is a good barometer of the kind of shape Gillespie is now returning to. Martins won bronze in the omnium in the elite Worlds in October and has claimed three other bronze medals at the elite Worlds and Europeans; in scratch and elimination races. Larrarte Arteaga, who took the last step on the omnium podium in the 17-rider race at the weekend, is herself a three-time Europeans medal winner.
Gillespie and Griffin teamed up in Anadia to win the madison, with to Spanish pairings rounding out the podium. In the men's madison, Irish riders Stefan Caulfield Dreier and Chris Donald, both of Spellman Dublin Port, rode to 9th place.
