Lara Gillespie (UAE Team ADQ) has opened her 2025 road race season with a strong result in Mallorca. The Irish rider was in the mix in the final sprint to the line that settled the Trofeo Marratxi-Felanitx (1.1) today.
Though her team positioned her well, with Gillespie and her team mates planting themselves close to the front, in the final they were swamped when EF Education-Oatly came through very strongly to take the front at a roundabout just before the finish.
The damage done by the US-registered team saw gaps emerge at the front of the field, with Gillespie and her team mates losing out and slipping back a little.
That meant Gillespie began her sprint among the riders approximately 10th to 20th on the road, with her new team mate - 22-year-old Dutch rider Sofie van Rooijen - fairing a little better out of that final push and eventually finishing in 6th place.
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The race was won by Finnish veteran Lotta Henttala (EF Education-Oatly) from Chiara Consonni (CANYON SRAM zondacrypto) and Maggie Coles-Lyster (Human Powered Health), with Gillespie just outside the top 10.
In what was the opening road race of the season in Europe, a four-rider breakaway still had four minutes in hand with about 40km to go, but were brought back with relatively ease.
Gillespie's team could be seen on the front doing some of the chasing, and positioning the Irish rider and van Rooijen, while Irish national road race champion, Fiona Mangan, was also to the fore in the chase inside the final 20km for her new team, Winspace Orange Seal.
As well as Gillespie and Mangan, Irish rider Aoife O'Brien was also in the race, making her debut for DAS-Hutchinson and finishing in the bunch, in 26th place. Mangan was 28th.
More to come.
