Lara Gillespie led the way for Team Ireland at the UCI World Track Championships in Santiago, Chile, with a commanding performance in the elimination race. She claimed the gold medal, her first world title, in an event she also won at the Europeans this year.
However, while Gillespie rightly grabbed the headlines in recent days, Ireland had a full team at these championships, including a completely new team pursuit line-up, with one of those riders competing in her first ever track races in Chile.
So let's have a look at how they all did over the five days of competition. New riders, and new formations, were tested by the Cycling Ireland high performance staff before the process of qualifying for the Los Angeles Olympic Games gets underway.
In the Irish team, with Gillespie (Team UAE ADQ), were: Aoife O'Brien (DAS-Hutchinson), Fiona Mangan (Winspace Orange Seal), Caoimhe O'Brien (Cynisca Cycling), Erin Creighton (McConvey Cycles) and Emma Jerffers (Liv AlUla Jayco).
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First up for the Irish team, last Wednesday, was the new-look team pursuit line-up which featured the O'Brien sisters, Mangan and Creighton.
It was a team that was missing any of the four riders who raced for Ireland at the Olympics last year - Gillespie with other interests at these Worlds, Mia Griffin on Roland road team duties in China and with Alice Sharpe and Kelly Murphy having stepped away from international duties.
The new formation will hopefully help those four riders hone their team pursuit craft as new athletes will be needed for the event as Ireland looks towards the LA Games. Unfortunately, they did not progress from qualifying; posting a time of 4:31.154.
That time was way off the national record - set at the Paris Games last summer - of 4:12.447, which would have been fourth fastest in the Chile qualifying round. However, given the fact this is a new line-up, and that a rider like Mangan was making her track debut in Chile, the result is not important.
The key thing is that the Irish riders now have a training camp together, and a competitive ride at the Worlds, under their belts. And that's all invaluable experience as they move forward, especially as this is a very technical event, where moving perfectly as a unit is absolutely vital.
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Also on Wednesday, Jeffers - who is still relatively new to the national team set-up - was in action in the scratch race, placing 12th of the 24-rider field; the gold won by Holland's Lorena Wiebes.
Team Pursuit Qualifying
On Thursday, the second day of action, Ireland only had one rider on the track, and it was Gillespie in the elimination race that delivered the famous gold medal.
It was the first senior world title every won by an Irish woman, track or road, though the paracyclists - Katie George Dunlevy with pilots Linda Kelly and Eve McCrystal - have won multiple world and Paralympic titles.
Gillespie had to come down off the gold medal mountain almost immediately as she was in action in the omnium the next day, Friday, where she finished 6th overall of 22 starters.
Her placings across the four races that make up the omnium were: scratch race 8th, tempo race 9th, elimination race 11th, points race 5th - winning the first sprint and gaining a lap in the latter.
On Saturday, Aoife O'Brien placed 24th, of 25 starters, in the 1km TT in a time of 1:12.554, meaning she did not advance in the competition as only the top eight advanced. In the individual pursuit, Mangan was 12th, of 25 starters, in a time of 4:40.390, with only four advancing to the medal ride-offs.
Also on Saturday, Creighton and Jeffers teamed up, for the first time at this level, for the madison event. They were among six non-finishers in the 18-team world title race.
Today, Sunday, Gillespie was in action in the women's points race, placing 12th of 22 starters, bringing Ireland's campaign to an end. It was a Worlds that brought a fantastic gold medal for Ireland and saw a new-look senior track team gain crucial experience as Ireland builds for the future.
