In rainy conditions, the track world champion was the fastest from the breakaway in an uphill sprint to take her third road title, following wins in 2020 and 2023. Emma Jeffers (Liv AlUla Jayco) was second, and defending champion Mia Griffin (Mayenne Monbana) rounded out the podium.
The 2026 edition of the race saw one of the strongest fields to ever take on the women’s title race, including Marine Lenehan (Lidl-Trek), Fiona Mangan (Picnic PostNL), Griffin and Gillespie.
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“It feels good [to win twice in three days]. It means a lot to bring the national jersey into the European Peloton. So, I’m excited to wear that for the next year, and I missed it the last two years. It was really good race, and I felt really good again today. So, I knew it was going to be a fun one,” Gillespie told Cycling Ireland.
“It was absolutely bleak weather, but actually kind of like you wouldn’t go out in that on training day, but it was quite fun to race in drastically different conditions today compared to Thursday.”
Gillespie was able to use the miserable conditions to whittle the field down.
“The wind was quite good for me, because I attacked over the top of the climb, which kind of split the group up quite well, and then I attacked another time in like a crosswind section, and that also I think tired people out. I think maybe, I don’t know, I used it to my advantage.”
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The 32-rider field tackled the challenging Loch na Fooey Loop once before transitioning to the 28.7km Cloughbrack loop, twice, for a total of 111.6 kilometres.
The peloton fractured on the first big climb, in the Loch na Fooey Loop, with an elite lead group of nine riders building up a gap of 2 minutes before the final shorter lap. In addition to Gillespie, Jeffers and Griffin, the lead group included Fiona Mangan (Mayenne-Monbana-Mypie), Aliyah Rafferty (DAS-Hutchinson), Marine Lenehan (Lidl-Trek), Greta Lawless (Simpson Nouvelles), Linda Kelly and Lucy Benezet-Minns (Team Féminin Chambéry).
Lenehan was the first to make a move inside of two kilometres before being reeled in by Gillespie with the group in tow, leading to the final sprint.
“Marine actually tacked with like one one and a half to go, and everyone just let her go, so then I attacked over the top, and then I was like ‘I’m not gonna lose it, like now with one K to go’, and then I wanted to kind of try and use her as a lead out in a way, but I kind of caught her too soon. So then everyone else also caught up, and then we like braked, and then we were all side by side, basically a standing start with 250 to go,” Gillespie said.
“I know how fast Mia is. I mean, on the track we’re racing and training together a lot, and then I know how fast Emma is from the road, so yeah, I just had to hope for the best.”
