{"id":326717,"date":"2026-03-03T13:44:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T13:44:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/326717\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T13:44:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T13:44:13","slug":"lara-gillespie-sprints-to-one-of-the-biggest-wins-of-her-career-at-samyn-ladies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/326717\/","title":{"rendered":"Lara Gillespie sprints to one of the biggest wins of her career at Samyn Ladies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Race winner Lara Gillespie of Ireland and UAE Team ADQ reacts after the Beobank Samyn Ladies. Photo: Getty\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages_2264409890.jpg\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"100%\" data-testid=\"article-image\"  \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_caption1 indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_secondary indo-66f0fec7_regular indo-1d70522a_marginbottom0 indo-1d70522a_marginleft0 indo-1d70522a_marginright0 indo-1d70522a_margintop3 indo-b48c4984_left\" style=\"color:var(--color-grey-60)\">Race winner Lara Gillespie of Ireland and UAE Team ADQ reacts after the Beobank Samyn Ladies. Photo: Getty<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Lara Gillespie toasts her win with second-place Marthe Goossens of Belgium. Photo: Getty\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/750bd15c-2e4e-447e-8faa-b99dec39f234.jpg\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"100%\" data-testid=\"article-image\"  \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_caption1 indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_secondary indo-66f0fec7_regular indo-1d70522a_marginbottom0 indo-1d70522a_marginleft0 indo-1d70522a_marginright0 indo-1d70522a_margintop3 indo-b48c4984_left\" style=\"color:var(--color-grey-60)\">Lara Gillespie toasts her win with second-place Marthe Goossens of Belgium. Photo: Getty<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"thumbnail: Race winner Lara Gillespie of Ireland and UAE Team ADQ reacts after the Beobank Samyn Ladies. Photo: Getty\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1772545453_297_GettyImages_2264409890.jpg\" height=\"40px\" width=\"auto\"\/><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"thumbnail: Lara Gillespie toasts her win with second-place Marthe Goossens of Belgium. Photo: Getty\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1772545453_494_750bd15c-2e4e-447e-8faa-b99dec39f234.jpg\" height=\"40px\" width=\"auto\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom0 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">Irish cyclist Lara Gillespie claimed one of the biggest victories of her career by winning the Beobank Samyn Ladies in Belgium today.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">The Wicklow racer claimed her first win of the season \u2013 after three second-place finishes already in 2026 \u2013 when sprinting from an elite group of nine riders 200m from the finish line for a decisive win after 133.4km of racing from Quaregnon to Dour.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">The group had pulled clear of the peloton 65km from the finish and Gillespie was helped by having teammate Elynor Backstedt in the decisive move.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">The UAE Team ADQ duo played their cards perfectly in the finale with a clear gap between the Irish rising star and Belgian rider Marthe Goossens, who finished second.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Lara Gillespie toasts her win with second-place Marthe Goossens of Belgium. Photo: Getty\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1772545453_301_750bd15c-2e4e-447e-8faa-b99dec39f234.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"100%\" data-testid=\"article-image\"  \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_caption1 indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_secondary indo-66f0fec7_regular indo-1d70522a_marginbottom0 indo-1d70522a_marginleft0 indo-1d70522a_marginright0 indo-1d70522a_margintop3 indo-b48c4984_left\" style=\"color:var(--color-grey-60)\">Lara Gillespie toasts her win with second-place Marthe Goossens of Belgium. Photo: Getty<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">\u201cI\u2019m incredibly happy with this victory,\u201d said the 24-year-old. \u201cThe team did an excellent job from the very beginning today. Elynor was amazing, she\u2019s truly a top rider.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">\u201cRacing with teammates who are so strong and selfless makes a huge difference. She deserves a special round of applause, and this win is also hers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">\u201cIt wasn\u2019t exactly the plan we had this morning, but when that move went we immediately knew it was important to be there. We committed to the break and worked hard to make it stick.<\/p>\n<p class=\"indo-ebe0ecc6_root indo-ebe0ecc6_paragraph indo-300db776_none indo-91174671_primary indo-1d70522a_marginbottom5 indo-1d70522a_margintop0 indo-b48c4984_inherit\" style=\"color:var(--color-primary-80)\">\u201cWe managed the race very well and in the finale I was confident in my sprint. I\u2019m really happy with this win, for myself and for the team.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Race winner Lara Gillespie of Ireland and UAE Team ADQ reacts after the Beobank Samyn Ladies. Photo: Getty&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":326718,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,898,112],"class_list":["post-326717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-latest-news-ticker","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=326717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/326718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}